Msg #1423 Unjust Stewards, Mammon, Law and Grace.

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice 

    Luke chapter 16 is unique out of all the chapter outlines of Scripture. It curiously leads with a strange parable addressed to his disciples. An unjust steward, was caught wasting his masters goods was to be fired. For his own gain, he entreated his lord's debtors mercifully, to where even his master commended the unjust steward for his genius. Generally parables have only one major truth that is being emphasized, this one has four called out. 1) The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. God does not expect Christians to use the methods of the world, but to at least have the savvy of the world. 2) Use the mammon of unrighteousness to make to yourselves friends. If you have a Ranger Bass boat, use it for eternal purposes, use it to be a gospel witness. 3) Be faithful in that which is least. Some of us do not have a Ranger Bass boat, nonetheless... 4) No servant can serve two masters. Daily, be certain who your master is, ... with all your heart, soul and mind. Aimed at disciples, this parable did not set well with the covetous Pharisees, and they derided him. In this chapter Jesus rebukes them and their "letter-of-the-law" mentality. The law and the prophets are being replaced, more exactly "fulfilled", by the incoming kingdom of God that Jesus preached. Two notes; Luke 16:18 is not Jesus' teaching on divorce, it is his illustration of the harsh exactness of the law, in contrast to the supreme grace found in the kingdom of God. Also, the accounting of the certain rich man and of Lazarus given in the close of this chapter, is the capstone of the truths presented in this chapter. Rereading Luke 16 is beneficial. 

An Essay for week #23 06/08/2014

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