Jesus On Money, Part One: Rich Toward God Series

Good morning. Please open your Bible to Luke 12.

If you have ever listened to a sermon on money, or been at church where they did a series on stewardship, you might have heard a preacher say, ‘Jesus talked about money more than anything else.’ I’ve heard it. I may have even said it. There are a lot of tropes like that out there:

“Jesus talks about money more than he talks about heaven and hell combined.”

There are over 2,000 verses in the Bible related to money— twice as many as verses on faith or prayer.”

Turns out those statistics can be a little misleading — they make you think the Bible cares more about money than it actually does. Statistics like this are based on keyword searches and thematic tagging, and they are powerful because they convince us that how we manage our money is a really, really big deal to God.

But just because a verse mentions a shekel doesn’t mean its a teaching about money.

That’s not to say that money doesn’t show up in Jesus’ teaching. It does. A lot. About 1 out of every 7 verses in His parables mention money. Eleven out of His thirty-nine parables reference wealth, possessions, or generosity.

And yet — here’s the part we can’t miss — money was almost never the main thing Jesus was talking about. Jesus talked about money to reveal something deeper: what we trust, what we value, where our hearts are.

You see, Money doesn’t dominate Scripture the way you might have been told, but it shows up just enough to reveal how easily it dominates our lives. Scripture doesn’t make money the main thing, but boy, we sure do, don’t we?

That’s why we’re calling this series ‘Jesus on Money.’ Over the next five weeks, we’re going to study what Jesus actually said about wealth, possessions, and generosity — and how we can align our priorities with His.

So with all that in mind, let’s listen to one of Jesus’ most challenging parables about wealth and the heart behind it — the Parable of the Rich Fool.

Luke 12:13–21 (ESV)

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 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.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 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. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

[Pray]

The Context: Teacher, Tell My Brother…

Luke 12 opens like this:

“In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, He began to say to His disciples first … (v.1)

Notice— this is a conversation Jesus is having with the disciples. It isn’t for the many thousands who are trampling each other. In Luke 12, Jesus is teaching about some deeply spiritual issues — warning His disciples about hypocrisy, persecution, and confessing Him before men. He admonishes them to fear God and not men. He encourages them to keep their focus on eternal realities, not temporary ones.

And then… right in the middle of this heavy teaching, some yahoo in the crowd yells out:

“Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me!” (v.13)

It would be funny if it weren’t so revealing:

While Jesus is unpacking fearless discipleship and eternal priorities this guy is worried about how many goats or shekels he gets from Dad’s estate.

This tone-deaf interruption says something profound about the human heart: When money matters most, what really matters matters less.

It’s true. We’ll spend more time on this passage later in the series, but Jesus was clear in the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 6:24 (ESV)

24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Now, even though it was incredibly tone deaf, the man’s request wasn’t all that unusual. Rabbis were often called to settle these disputes but Jesus refuses. First he says “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” This is ironic, because according to John 5:22 God the Father has given all judgment to the Son, just not in the way this knucklehead was thinking! Jesus sets him straight in verse 15: