Luke 12:13-21
The Parable of the Rich Fool
13Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."
14Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 15Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
16And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17He 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 all my grain and my goods. 19And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
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?'
21"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
Introduction
I believe many of you have heard stories of people hiding their money under pillows, within old news papers, inside reams of window curtains, or even underneath flower pots.
One of my missionary friends told me a real story that happened to a lady from her English as Second Language classes many years ago.
The lady kept $7000 buds in her pyjamas to avoid being stolen just in case a break in took place.
One day, she decided to clear some of her old clothes by putting them into those charity bins (not sure Anglicare or Vinnies’ bin).
Only months later this lady recalled the incident, but too late, her $7000 is gone with the pyjamas and had no way to trace.
Another story was told of a rich man who was walking alone at a market.
When he saw people were enjoying food and conversation, he felt even lonelier.
He has a 7 en-suite bedroom bungalow with gold plated taps in every bath.
He has huge garden, backyard, garages and of course few luxury cars.
Yet there is always lack of genuine trust and love within the members of his family.
Another story happened in the State.
One day an ordinary man became a millionaire by luck.
Many people started to befriend him because they coveted his money.
Tiring with entertaining these people, he sighed and said that it would be better if the clock could turn back and regain his normal life as an ordinary man.
The story does not stop there.
For months, his family did not see him thinking that he might have gone for a holiday. But one day the police came to inform them of the bad news.
He was murdered by a couple who transferred his money into their bank account, knocked him down and buried his body under the floor of their house.
I can keep on telling you stories after stories about how evil can do to a person or a family if we do not know how to deal with it.
Money is not evil. But as 1Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many grieves.”
1. The background
Luke 12:13-21 marks one of the important teachings and warnings of Christ for his followers on His journey towards Jerusalem, fulfilling God’s plan to save mankind through His death on the cross.
Jesus warned them not to be entangled with the worries of worldly possession but rather be on their guard against all kinds of greed.
To illustrate this, Jesus told them a parable of the rich fool who had gathered so many crops eventually he demolished the old ones and built new barns to store them.
Satisfying with what he has, he said to himself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” (Luke 12:19)
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?' (Luke 12:20)
After the telling the parable, Jesus continued to challenge his followers--
"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." (Luke 12:21)
2. What does it mean to store up things for himself?
‘To store up things’ has to do with the purpose and meaning of life.
We need to ask ourselves who do we live for?
What is the purpose of our lives?
Will we take life easy, eat, drink and be merry?
The author of Ecclesiastes has described human life as nothing new under the sun.
Everything seems meaningless and vain.
That is the phenomenon of life away from the eternal God.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), a French mathematician, physicist and theologian once described that there is a vacuum liked space deep down in our hearts. Nothing in this world is able to fill up this emptiness except by an infinite and immutable object, in other words by God himself.
Ernest Hemingway, a well known mid 20th century Noble Prize winner writer.
In his book ‘The Old Man and The Sea’, he described life as full of struggles and toils which ends up helpless.
In 1959 Hemingway moved from Cuba to Ketchum, Idaho, where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961, ended his life that at one time full of glory and fame, at the other time ill with turmoil and frustrations.
No wonder Paul urged the people in Colossi to set their hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. (Col 3:1).
To be specific, what are the things of this world?
The following words of Paul to the Colossians might give us some clues about the things of this world.
Paul said, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” (Col 3:5-10)
It is worth to note that Paul described evil desires and greed is idolatry.
The term ‘evil desires’ in Greek is πλεονεξία (pleonexia) means covetousness, wanting to have more or the will to have more (for example a larger portion, advantage, superiority).
Its plural sense includes covetous thoughts, plans of fraud and extortion.
In other words, πλεονεξία (pleonexia) means a desire of having more, more than God in his providence has allotted us.
It was not a lawful desire of getting his own, but a sinful desire of getting more than his own.
3. What are the lessons?
Here we could learn at least two lessons:
a. Invest your treasures in heaven.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mat 6:19-21)
b. Be contented what you have.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Mat 6:25-27)
Conclusion
When I think of eternity, I think of what would we see in heaven.
The children may say, “Oh yes, we will see all the rabbits and roses!”
Some may say, “May be we will see the dinosaurs!”
Whatever it will be, we will see two eternal ‘items’ in heaven:
a. The first one is ‘human beings’.
Human beings are temporal in the world but for those who are in Christ will live eternally in heaven.
If you invest your possessions, be it money or talents, and bring a single soul to Christ, that is eternal investment.
In an interview, Rick Warren, the author of “Purpose driven life”, described life is preparation for eternity.
He said, “We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity.
This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal.
God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense….”
He continued, “The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort;
God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life.
The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness….”
Dealing with his more than 15 million copies of “Purpose Driven Life” sold and the money coming in,
Rick Warren had this to say, “I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence.
He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit..
We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year (2006?), I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free….”
What an amazing life investment.
b. The second eternal object in heaven is the ‘Word of God’.
Similarly, if you invest in the study of God’s Word, it is an eternal investment because the word of God will never cease.
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Mat 24:35).
We need to start memorising God’s Word and mediated over them.
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2Tim 3:16-17)
The Psalmist said, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” (Psalm 119:105).
Without the Word of God, we will fail to see the direction.
Without the Word of God, we will not have absolute truth for our judgement.
The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. (Psalm 14:1)
Do not be a fool.
Read the Word of God.
I thank God for being able to serve at Granville for the past month.
I see so many talented people offering their time, Money and effort in building this body of Christ.
May I congratulate you for all these.
