The Gifts and the Giver

Luke 12, verses 13 to 34 today. Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." But he said to him, "Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?" And he said to them, "Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man produced plentifully.

And he thought to himself, 'What shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops.' And he said, 'I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.

Relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. And he said to his disciples, 'Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.

Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?

If then you are not able to do a smaller thing such as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith?

And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the needy.

Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. One of the big themes running right throughout scripture is thankfulness or gratitude. It's a theme that is not often seen as a major theme of the Bible, but it's there consistently, Old and New Testament. Now it is possible to have been fairly generous this morning with your giving.

We've all made gifts in the bags and through electronic transfers throughout the week, however that happens for you. And many of you have actually brought bags with produce in them for Narang Neighbourhood Centre. But with all these goods and with all the finances you've given to the church, even over the past year, it is possible not to be thankful, to have lost that attitude of gratitude that should be at the very heart of all that we do. So what is it about gratitude and thanksgiving that makes it so radical, so different to the way we normally function? The word radical means the radix, which means the heart, which means depth at the very centre of your being.

What is it that causes God's people to be radically thankful or generous? You see, the heart is the place where God does his best work. It's where the wonderful work of the gospel grabs us, claims us, and engages with us. God does that through his word and his Holy Spirit. And then it changes us, and we can begin to actually feel the gospel working in us, raising up in us this spirit of gratitude or thankfulness for everything and for everyone.

Ultimately, our thankfulness, and to the degree to which you are blessed with it, is where you are looking for security, where you're hoping for significance in this life, where you're searching for comfort and peace. And so that's the question we're going to be asking ourselves this morning: simply this, where am I looking for my ultimate comfort and peace? Where am I looking for my ultimate comfort and peace? This is good for me, and I trust it'll be good for you to be instructed on because it's so easy for us to rely on things, assets, material goods, to provide for my own significance and my security.

But the gospel makes a different case for us. It builds on the story that God is the owner of all things, the giver of all things. We have all things from him on trust, and we're to use them as his stewards. And that, quite frankly, is to be considered a privilege and something we must give thanks for every day. And as we have seen, our thankfulness can go even further in the gospel because the gospel is about God's ultimate gift to us.

The payment of his one and only Son for all our sins and the precious gift of eternal life for all who will believe. His generosity towards us exceeds all that we dare hope for. Still, I'm willing to concede that not everyone in this room this morning will appreciate that. In fact, at Open House, we've always had people present on Sundays or watching online who are at every single stage of a spiritual journey, every stage. And that means that there are people who are trying to come to grips with who Jesus is and how they can have a relationship with him and what they should be thinking about this subject this morning.

And if you haven't already got a grip on the basic foundational principle of who Jesus is and what a relationship with him looks like, then of course, what the Bible says about thankfulness just won't make any sense. It may even be offensive to you, potentially a turn off this morning. And that makes me somewhat of a reluctant preacher this morning. I'm hesitant to burden genuine enquirers with the degree of thankfulness that Scripture talks about. I was reluctant until I read from Luke and confronted by these sayings of Jesus recorded here in Luke 12.

But it was there that I saw something that I'd never actually seen before, and it wasn't actually in the reading that Quentin gave us this morning. It's there in the very first verse of the chapter. There's a fascinating setting for this text this morning, and Luke often does this. He explains the setting or the situation where Jesus was teaching. It could be on a mountain or in a valley or in a boat on a lake.

But here, verse one, chapter 12, here we are told: "Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples." Now, one of the most amazing things about chapter 12, and as I said, I've never seen this before, is that as the crowd gathers, there are thousands of people there. And they're actually trampling on one another. You can imagine them jostling for positions in order to get closer to Jesus, in order to hear him speak.

And then when Jesus does speak, he speaks to his disciples. But there's a number of times when he, in a sense, turns his head and speaks directly to the crowd. But very often, he speaks directly to his disciples, but then always in a way that the crowd can hear. That's one of the reasons why Peter kind of gets confused at one point down in verse 41 rather, in chapter 12. Peter asked, "Lord, are you telling this parable to us or to everyone?

To the crowd or to the disciples?" And here's what I suddenly realised: Jesus Christ addresses the crowd, people who believe and people who don't believe. People who know, who don't know what to believe. He says something to them directly, but he also chooses certain subjects that he wants them to overhear as he talks to his disciples.

It's very interesting. He not only gives the crowds things he wants them to hear intentionally, but he also gives them things he wants them to overhear unintentionally. And what is that? What is it that he wants them to overhear in his discussion with his disciples? It's simply this: thanksgiving.

How to be thankful about sacrificial living, about gratitude, about our relationship to our possessions and all the good things that God gives us. It's both something he wants his disciples to know and the crowd to hear about or to overhear. Specifically, he wants the crowd to overhear the conversation he's having with his disciples about money. So it's good you are here. Each one of us this morning, long time attendees and new people.

Those in relationship with Jesus and those who are not in a relationship. And one of the ways we're going to get to know how to have a relationship with Jesus is to come to grips with money and our own possessions. And you'll come to understand more of who Jesus is and what he's done for us. And therefore, we together are going to look at the story that he tells to all of us. And if you want to understand that little story or parable, there are three Rs that are going to help you remember.

Not reading, writing, and arithmetic, the three Rs: a request, a refusal, and a rebuke. A request, a refusal, and a rebuke. And about each one of them, we're going to ask the why question. You know, the kind of question four-year-olds like to ask. Why, Daddy?

Why must I do this, that, or the other? We're going to ask that about the request, the refusal, and the rebuke. First of all, there's a request. Verse 13: "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." Why?

Why that request? And why is Jesus the go-to person to deal with this? The man in the story has a brother, and together they've been left with an inheritance. Trouble is, one of the brothers has possession of it, and he seems to be not willing to give his brother the fair share. And so Jesus is asked to settle this dispute amongst these two brothers.

Now why would this aggrieved brother go to Jesus? There's a general answer to that question and a more specific answer. Notice he calls Jesus rabbi or teacher. In those days, civil suits like this were not handled by secular courts. There were no magistrates, juries, or judges.

Instead, you would go to the local rabbi, and a rabbi would apply biblical law and make a judgment on your case. But that can't be enough of an explanation as to why this man would go and see Jesus here. See, Jesus was not a member of the Sanhedrin. He was not one of the trained accredited rabbis who would sit in the temple courts and adjudicate from there. We could say Jesus was not part of the system, so to speak.

So why is Jesus being asked specifically? Well, there's a more specific reason. And if you'd be willing to read through the whole book of Luke in just one sitting, then the thing that would amaze you would be the fact that Jesus talks about money more than he talks about any other single subject except maybe himself. Jesus has acquired a bit of a reputation, let's say, about being somewhat of an authority on this subject of money. He talks about wealth and possessions, justice and mercy constantly.

In chapter 11, 16, and 18 are all about that. A total of 11 out of Jesus' 39 parables are directly on money and what we're supposed to do with it. Jesus talked about money lots. Jesus always seems to be talking about the proper use of your wealth and your possessions. And that could be the more specific reason why Jesus, why this man turned to Jesus to ask him the question.

The man is asking, since you are kind of an authority on this subject and the local rabbi, help my brother. Will you talk to my brother about his problem with money? This man's like many of us. We sit in a sermon. We're listening to a message, we think, I wish so-and-so were here today.

You know, it's exactly what he or she needs to hear. This man's saying the same thing. Help my brother. You see, he's got a problem. Jesus is not going to help his brother.

First of all, Jesus says, or Jesus will, in fact, help this man, but perhaps not in the way that he intended. I'm under the conviction that we should be talking about money much more than we do, and not just because of considerations that we might have in our budget in the forthcoming year, 2025. We should be talking about money as a regular issue in our small groups, at home visits, as couples, and as families, but we seldom do. If you do enrol in a pre-marriage counselling course, I'm happy to note that it is a topic of discussion as couples prepare for marriage. And yet finances and financial planning are things we're hearing a lot about these days.

Most, if not all, the battles to be fought at the coming federal election will be about money and the cost of living crisis. It is a burning issue in society at the moment. But what are you actually hearing on this subject from your church? What teaching are you receiving from God's word? To be honest, I'm a reluctant preacher on this particular subject.

Over the years, I've learned that ministers and money don't mix very well. Preachers and financial plans can so easily be in tension with one another. A minister's stipend and his wages can often be the biggest item on the church budget. And I don't mind admitting that in the past, I've been prompted by a rather anxious session or a group of elders or the church treasurer himself to talk up giving in a worship service. I think we should all be able to talk about giving, to identify trends in giving, to spur each other on to be faithful in giving, and most of all, to be thankful.

You see, it's possible to give without being thankful. We can so easily minimise the topic of thanksgiving since poor giving or not giving at all is always someone else's problem. It's like my brother's problem, Lord. Tell him to be more generous. But each one of us needs to consider this.

It's not what the Bible says to my brother, but to you and to me personally, individually. Actually, this is at the heart of absolutely everything a Christian is and does. If you're a relative outsider and not familiar with who Jesus is, this will bring you to the heart of the gospel. Let me show you how. Right from the beginning, when the church first started in Acts 4, 5, and 6, you can read about what the early Christians did with their property and their money.

They gave their money away. In Acts 2:45, "All the believers were together and had everything in common, selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need." In astonishing proportions that showed the world that something real had happened to them as a kind of counterculture to what was happening in their world. They were saying to the world, God has changed me. God has changed us.

We're Christians. People say, that's nice. Good on you. I mean, welcomes that. Another faith, another religion. But the world really takes notice when they see Christians giving money away in a way that nobody else did in astonishing proportions.

The reality of God's generosity to us will never hit the world unless they see the generosity of Christians. For that reason, I'm so thankful that we can be giving outside the context of the church this morning, even beyond chaplaincy in schools, and be giving to Narang Neighbourhood Centre. They had nothing to do with the church. They're a humanitarian relief organisation intending to do good. And yet, in a way, God's people can bless that institution and use it as a means to connect the gospel to others.

Like the psalmist said, the psalm that we read earlier, Psalm 50, you can't worship God until you say, everything I have comes from you, belongs to you. And you can't love your brothers and sisters until you're thankful and you share with them, and you can't love the world until you give. Number two, there was a request, now the refusal. Why the refusal? In some ways, the big surprise in this passage comes when Jesus refuses to arbitrate or to give this man a judgment on his situation.

It's not that Jesus isn't concerned about what is fair and just. There's no doubt. He's very concerned. He's always concerned about issues of justice. He's always talking about it, and it's why the man asked him.

But the way Jesus responds makes us wonder, what does Jesus say in verse 14? "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbitrator between you?" It's almost a rebuke. He addresses this man as if he were a stranger. Why is this confusing?

Why wouldn't Jesus want to speak into this situation? Well, he does in a manner of speaking, but as we will see, he does so on his own terms, not on the man's terms. You could argue he's being very pastoral here. Jesus is thinking, hey, I don't want to have a discussion with you about your brother or what he should do. Let's instead talk about you.

Now, if you've come to ask me to divide your inheritance, before you ask me to judge your life, you've got things the wrong way around. You don't understand. You don't know why I'm here and what I'm appointed to do. You don't get my mission on the earth. Well, what is Jesus appointed to do and what is his mission?

He's come to give us life. It says right here, a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Well, if it's not in the abundance of your possessions, where does your life consist? Jesus is saying, my work is to tell you what life really is. My job is to show you what your life really consists of.

And what you've done, mister, is you've come to me and you believe your life consists in possessions, in property and stuff, but I'm telling you, without me, you have absolutely nothing, nothing to boast of. And you come to me and you call me teacher, a rabbi no less, and you think that I can offer you this, that, or the other thing. Hey, you're not serving me. You're using me. You know what's going on.

Are you picking up the vibe in the discussion between them? Jesus is saying you haven't understood what I'm here for, and I'm not here to get you things that you think will make your life a better life. I've come here to be your life. I've come here to be your life. Jesus is asking us the same question this morning.

A much more fundamental question than the question we would want to answer, we would want him to answer. We go to Jesus like this. We say, oh, Lord, I'm thinking of becoming a Christian and I've got a lot of investments. If you make my assets grow, I'll be a Christian. Or Lord, I've been a Christian for a long time.

Make my superannuation fund do well, and make sure I have that nest egg for my retirement. Or Lord, I'm thinking of becoming a Christian, but if you will just tell him or her to marry me, then I'll surely do it. Oh Lord, I'm thinking of becoming a Christian. Just give me that job that I've been dreaming of. So often, we want a bargain with Jesus.

And in that sense, we want Jesus to work a deal for us. Remember Donald Trump working a deal. We're doing the same thing. Lord, get me the things that you know is my life, and get me my fair share of the inheritance. And Jesus says, no.

I'm not coming in at that level. I'm not playing your game. I'm not appointed to speak to you in this manner. I'm appointed to come to you and say to you, I've not come to give you things that you think are your life. I've come to be your life.

To be your life. Instead, I've come to set you free from these things, to make you radically different from the world. And don't you see? You'll just be chaff in the wind. You won't last.

You'll be blown away with your money. You'll be blown away with your career. You'll be blown away with your spouse or your job or whatever you hang on to for security and significance in this life. These things are going to pass, and you will pass with them. I'm not appointed to do this, says Jesus.

I'm not that kind of judge. For all I know, this could be the reason why some of you have come to church even this morning. You're scared. You have financial concerns. You have marital concerns, maybe you've got health concerns, relational concerns.

You want God to look after you. But God's agenda with you and me is so much more, so much more significant, so much more secure. It offers you far more significance than you ever dared for or hoped to imagine. The only way Jesus will help is if you do not say, Lord, sort out these areas of my life and then I'll follow you. Instead, pray, Lord Jesus, I want you in every area of my life.

I want to really live for you. You see, Jesus wants all of us. You can't compartmentalise your life and just have a Sunday side of your life and be prepared to commit that to the Lord. No. No.

He wants you Sunday through to the following Sunday, the whole week. So before we move on to the last R this morning, can you see what's going on? If you're not sure of what you believe, never make this mistake. This man wants to use Jesus. Anytime we say, Lord, tell this or that to happen. Not that these things are unimportant, but they're not primary.

Jesus says, a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. The real reason for the refusal is priorities. The right priority is to come to Jesus first, not possessions. So this leads us logically to the third R this morning. We've moved on from a reprimand, or we've moved on from a request to a rebuke.

And the rebuke is there in verse 20. And this is strong language from Jesus: "You fool. This very night, your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?"

How often does God come up in the Bible and say, you fool? It happens more often than you might think. The word fool in the Bible is a very significant word. It means more than being an empty head or acting foolishly. It does have a relational aspect to it.

A fool in the Bible is someone who says there is no God. I'm the master of my own destiny. I'm in control. Basically, someone who's thinking things through. He's a person who can't see beyond this life.

And what made this particular man in the parable a fool? Well, it's about the barns or the sheds out back. He's a hoarder, and they are just overflowing, full of his abundant harvests, full with his property. Money had made him a fool. Money had blinded him to the reality of life.

And here's what I mean by reality. It's very important. Notice this man is saving as if this life is all there is. It's very interesting. It's all about saving.

I don't know why the banks don't use this verse in their advertisements. It's the message we hear from the superannuation funds. You have plenty of good things laid up for the many years. So relax, eat, drink, and be merry. Why?

Well, this man saved up for it. He's been storing all his stuff up. He will go on to build sheds and more sheds in order to hoard his possessions. And not only does he store up his grain, his harvest, but he also says, I'll store up my grain and my goods. Everything, because he saved, and now he can be happy.

And God says, you're the fool. And here's why. Because he's stored up as if the world is all there is. As if there were no reality after death. As if there was no spiritual world.

Obviously, to save nothing in this physical world is foolishness. But if there is something beside this physical world, then to save everything is stupid and foolish. Because God says there's going to come a time when you will die, when you will be removed from this world. And then who will get what you have prepared? So what we have here is something very important.

We have the idea that money pulls us. It starts to shrink our world and our view of reality. We start to think and believe that the sum total of our lives exists in economic forecasts or projections or graphs or flowcharts, the things, the stuff that we've surrounded ourselves with. But what God actually is saying here, the money you have cannot go with you. You will be separated from it.

It's finite. It has an end. But there are some things that will never end. The Bible says God's kingdom will never end. Isaiah says, the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of God stands forever.

The word of God doesn't end. People do not end. We were made for eternity. And right here at the very end: "You fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you. And this is how it'll be with anyone who stores up things for himself," that is the world's way, "but is not rich towards God."

Obviously, being rich towards God must mean emptying your barns, to let go, to give it away. And how do we know this is true? Who's actually saying these words? Do you realise that in a curious way Jesus could be talking about himself? The fool is the person in the parable who exists in his possessions.

Jesus Christ on the cross is the ultimate fool, at least as far as the world is concerned. In fact, that's the way Paul puts it in one Corinthians. It's very blunt in the way he says it. For Jesus is the foolishness of God and is wiser than man's wisdom and the weakness of God, Jesus, stronger than man's strength. Jesus Christ proved it.

When he went to the cross, he won through losing. He was filled through emptying. He got glory by emptying himself of his glory. In that way, Jesus is proof. Jesus' life, he lived his life on this earth as a man, dressed in sandals.

He was without a home. He had no regular means of income and relied on the generosity of others. He was without any worldly means, and yet he became the most influential man who ever lived on our planet. And today, his followers have his power in the world to be different, to change the world, and to bring on the kingdom of God. And he's proven who the real fool is.

And you only know that if you know the gospel. Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher in the nineteenth century, was preaching on this text, and he says, and I quote, the one way you know if Jesus Christ is precious to you is if nothing else is. The one way you know if Jesus Christ is precious to you is if nothing else is. Everything else is expendable. Your money, your possessions don't have to have a hold on you anymore.

Let's pray. Father, you've made it possible for us to be thankful because we understand who Jesus is. Help us to build our lives on him so that we become more and more thankful for what he has done for us. We thank you for having blessed us abundantly with so much stuff. Now, Lord, we pray that you'll make us radically generous as Jesus was with us.

We know we aren't like that, at least not consistently, but you've shown us in the gospel how we can be. We ask, therefore, at this time in our lives and at this time of our church's life, that you would make us a people who want to follow Jesus, who want to live as his image bearers so that we might become more like him who came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. Help us to serve one another and the communities where you place us. Thank you. We've been able to do that in some small way even today.

Thank you. And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.