Luke 12:13-21

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PREFACE FROM JOE :

Jesus continues his message on eternity and now turns to how we deal with material things. His exhortation to them as well as to us today is to beware of covetousness which can creep into our hearts so easily. The challenge is to be rich towards God and be good stewards over the things we have here, understanding we can’t take anything with us.

BIBLE PASSAGE:
The Parable of the Rich Fool Luke 12:13-21

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

¹⁴ Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” ¹⁵ 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.”^(A)

¹⁶ And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. ¹⁷ He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

¹⁸ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. ¹⁹ And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘You fool!^(B) This very night your life will be demanded from you.^(C) Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’^(D)

²¹ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”^(E)

NOTES TYPED FROM JOE’S TEACHING

Just as Jesus is talking about hypocrisy two brother’s start arguing about their inheritance. There are five warnings in this chapter and all of them have to do with time and eternity.  This gives him the stage to talk about covetousness.   This may be the only time these guys get to talk to Jesus and what do they come up and talk to him about???? “MAKE MY BROTHER SHARE THE INHERITANCE WITH ME..”  They are fighting over the will.

Jesus here is talking about covetousness. He says we must constantly take heed and guard against covetousness.  IT is in the present imperative. Why? Because covetousness will not voluntarily leave the human heart. When we get saved covetousness does not leave automatically. Covetousness: Greediness, to hunger and to thirst for more. 

Paul will say to Timothy: Godliness with contentment is great gain. We brought nothing in and will take nothing out.

I Timothy 6

But godliness with contentment is great gain,

7 for we brought nothing into the world, and  we cannot take anything out of the world.

8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

The 10th commandment deals specifically with covetousness:

Thou shall not covet they neighbors wife nor his ox nor his ass nor anything that is your neighbors. 

Paul said it was this law that slew him:

Romans 7

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.

9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.

10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.

11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

Paul knew this commandment would trip him up because it was a sin of the heart. All of the others were sins that were committed.  Paul realized that though he had not murdered he had hated, that though he had not committed adultery he had lusted after women.

The whole business of marketing is based on covetousness. The whole prosperity movement in the church is based on covetousness.  We must be watching for it all the time. It lives in our hearts.  It is not going to live on its own.

Jesus says that a man’s Zoe (life) is not given to possess things. “life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”  The thing every man is yearning for is to come back into fellowship with God.  There is no amount of possessing that will satisfy our hearts.  God came to give us the thing that we were made for. Eternity not time, spiritual not the physical, heaven not earth, for fellowship with God not the stuff of time.  Anything less will leave us empty.

Now the parable of the rich man.  God does not condemn wealth. Abraham  was OVERLOADED with silver and gold.  Moses was wealthy, Joseph was wealthy, Daniel was wealthy, Lydia was wealthy. Wealth is not condemned.  In fact the Bible does condemn wastefulness.  The man in this parable is not taking advantage of others, he has the fruits of his labor.  He is blessed. What will he do with it? 13 times he says “I am going to …” He is restless not knowing what to do with his wealth. Then he says I am going to eat drink and be merry. He is making the wrong investment. The Bible tells us that the love of money is the root of ALL evil.  The man in this parable did not consider the things in their possession as God’s and did not see himself as simply a steward. We are stewards over our children.  We are stewards over our finances. Not owners, stewards. This guy is “I, me, my…” Not one word of thanks or asking God for wisdom.

¹⁶ And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. ¹⁷ He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

¹⁸ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. ¹⁹ And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

²¹ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”^(E)

For us, our souls should not “be required” but rather offered up.  Even our soul, our life is not our own. We are stewards of it. God is the owner of our very lives.  Amongst unbelievers the second most used song at funerals is “I did it my way.”  

²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘You fool!^(B) This very night your life will be demanded from you.^(C) Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’^(D)

You notice that he prepared his treasure for himself.

²¹ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”^(E)

Set your affections on things above and not on things of this earth. Where your treasure is that’s where your heart will be also.

What an opportunity we have to be rich towards God, to know where our life is invested. To say grace and to say thanks for this food.  Show us how to give ourselves away. Show us how to send ahead. Show us how to tell a dying world about your son who died. Show us how to not covet authority or power or things. Show us how to bow before you by bowing before others in our hearts. Help us to comprehend all you gave up in order to come to this planet as a humble human being and to suffer and die for us.

QUESTION:

A. Read Philipains 2:1-11.

B.   Read what Watchman Nee says about this passage and what Jesus gave up on our account:

The Bible tells us that the Lord Jesus and the Father are one. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. The heaven and the earth were made through the Word. The glory which God had in the beginning, even the unapproachable glory of God, was also the Son’s glory. The Father and the Son exist equally and are equal in power and possession. Only in Person is there a difference between Father and Son. This is not an essential difference; it is merely an arrangement within the Godhead. Therefore, the Scripture says that the Lord “counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped”—that is, a thing to be seized. His equality with God is neither something seized upon nor acquired, for inherently He is the image of God.

Philippians 2.5-7 forms one section and verses 8-11, another. In these two sections our Lord is seen as having humbled Himself twice: first He emptied Himself in His divinity, and then He humbled Himself in His humanity. By the time He came to this world, the Lord had so emptied Himself of the glory, power, status, and form of His divinity that no one then living, other than by revelation, knew Him nor acknowledged Him as God. They treated Him as a man, as an ordinary person of this world. As the Son He willingly submits to the Father’s authority and declares that “the Father is greater than I” (John 14.28). Thus, there is perfect harmony in the Godhead. Gladly the Father takes the place of the Head, and the Son responds with obedience. God becomes the emblem of authority, while Christ assumes the symbol of obedience.

For we men to be obedient it should be simple, because all we need is but a little humility. For Christ to be obedient, however, is not so simple a matter. It is much harder for Him to be obedient than for Him to create the heavens and the earth. Why? Because He has to empty Himself of all the glory and power of His divinity and take the form of a slave before He is even qualified to obey. Hence obedience is initiated by the Son of God.

The Son originally shared the same glory and authority with the Father. But when He came to the world, He on the one hand forsook authority and on the other hand took up obedience. He willingly took the place of a slave, accepting the human limitation of time and space. He humbled Himself further and became obedient unto death. Obedience within the Godhead is the most wonderful sight in the whole universe. Since Christ was obedient unto death—suffering a most painful and shameful death on the cross—God has highly exalted Him. God exalts whoever humbles himself. This is a divine principle.

NOW THAT YOU HAVE READ PHIL AND READ WATCHMAN NEE, DO THE FOLLOWING:

• Meditate on all the Jesus laid aside in his authority and power to come to the earth then answer all 9 questions for yourself. Be prepared to share answers to both #1, #8 and #9 and also pick 1 question out of questions #3-#7 and be prepared to share.  Really think about it.  

1: Jesus laid aside his power as Creator God and did not use it for his own benefit. The scripture tells us that he was tempted in ALL ways as we are. Cite one time that he might have been tempted to use that power. Give the scripture reference.

2: Cite one time that Jesus used his power as Creator God to benefit others.

3: Cite one scripture where Jesus states or insinuates that it is His Father who commands and controls all things.  Cite one verse where Jesus states that he himself does nothing but what the Father tells him.

4: Cite one time that Jesus might have used his omniscience. Did he use it to benefit himself or to do the work of his father. (Give verse citation)

5: Cite one time where Jesus needed supernatural help and received it from the Father and not by exercising his own power.

6: Although he totally laid aside his position as God (not his deity but the authority and power associated with his deity) did he ever have a need that was not met by the Father? If so, cite the scripture reference.

7: If he did not have something that we would think of as needful, what was Jesus attitude towards that thing? Was he content in all things? Cite the verse

8:  Does the realization of these facts help you to have more faith in the Lord to provide for all your needs?  Does it help you to believe more solidly that God is in control? Does it give you more boldness in prayer, if so, how?

9) How does Jesus’ example help you to better live “godly with contentment?”