How Jesus Wants You to Use Money, Part 3 | How to be a Faithful Steward

Luke 16:9-13

As you return to Luke 16, you go back there now as we go back to the Luke 16. Think about what this means, that this is the Son of God, who speaks to us, and when he comes and speaks to us and teaches us, instructs us, his disciples, he shares this blessed gift of stewardship with us. You may think, a high and holy honor and stewardship in this life, maybe to be the mayor of Greeley, or governor of Colorado, or the President of the United States, or the king of the world, or whatever it is.

And think about all those different titles and the honor that they hold and the responsibility that that person bears. Jesus, the king of the father’s kingdom, he has the highest and holiest and most perfect and eternal and lasting stewardship that there is. He wants to bring us into it.

He grants us the privilege of serving his father and to do it under his careful oversight. Alongside the likes of Moses and the prophets. That’s who we’re numbered with, when we join him in stewardship, alongside the holy apostles, holy apostles who wrote things like this. All of this to advance the purposes of his father’s house and this is our stewardship. This is our time. This is what we get to use our life for. Is there anything more meaningful? Is there anything more significant than this? Not a chance.

In Luke 16:9 and following, Jesus encourages us in the exercise of a good stewardship. And he teaches us about the right motives of stewardship. We said last time, the right motives of stewardship, the right manner of stewardship, and the right master of stewardship, that’s what we’re going to get to today, but let’s read that text. We’ll skip the parable and go right to the implications of the parable in verse 9.

Luke 16:9, Jesus said this, “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails,” that is, when the unrighteous wealth fails, which it will, “They may receive you into the eternal dwellings. One who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you’ve not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant 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.”

As I said, last time, we looked at motives of stewardship last week, four motives of stewardship, that was our first point in our broader outline, the motives of our stewardship. So we talked about discipleship, wisdom, fellowship, worship, all four of those motives of stewardship come out of verse 9. “And I tell you make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”

So we said, the first motive, discipleship, Jesus says there, “And I tell you,” that is in contrast to the little epiphany that the unrighteous, the unjust steward had in verse 4, Jesus says, “And I tell you,” this is his good idea, makes this a matter, when he gives us something that’s a good idea, we write it down and we execute in obedience. So this is a matter of obedience for us.

This is the essence of discipleship; is to obey him in whatever he says. We want to obey Jesus as Lord, we love him. Why do we love him? Because he died for us on the cross, every decision that he made, everything he did in his life was all for the purpose of obedience, that he might be the perfect sacrifice, that he might give himself as a ransom for all, as a ransom for you, as a ransom for me. Without him, we’d be lost. So we love him, we make it our aim to please him, we love to obey Christ as our Lord. And Jesus said, “Take unrighteous wealth before it fails.” That is invest money now for future eternal benefit.

And this means second, our stewardship is motivated by wisdom. It’s wisdom to take what’s gonna go away, in a short, very short time and invest it for something that can never go away, right? Jim Elliott put it this way, he said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” That’s prudent. That is wisdom.

Jesus said, “Make friends for yourselves.” We said stewardship is motivated third, by fellowship. We rejoice to use money, to make friendships, to enter into a fellowship. These are friendships that are forged in a deep bond of gospel partnership, here on Earth. These, we make friends for eternity. That’s not only wise, but it’s driven by this desire for have, having friends and fellowship, not just now, but for the life to come.

And then Jesus finally talks about worship as he talks about entering into eternal dwellings. We said literally, that means eternal tents, so eternal, and then something temporary, something that is a permanent, nonpermanent tent, is what it really says there. The word is skene, it’s also translated, not just tent, but also in a number of places, tabernacle. Tabernacle that, that points to the motive of stewardship that is worship. Stewardship is an aspect, an outworking of our worship, who we worship is who we work for. Who we worship is who were devoted to. Our hope finally, as we can see promised here is consummated in God, to abide eternally with God in his holy, heavenly tabernacle. The holy habitation.

Psalm 46:4 says, “The holy habitation of the Most High.” That’s our permanent, and our eternal home. So those are the four motives we talked about last week that are to drive our stewardship, discipleship, wisdom, fellowship and worship, four motives. Jesus is the apostle and the High Priest of our confession. He wants us to be properly motivated for taking up the mantle of stewardship, that we’ve been granted because of the gospel. And then he comes into verses 10 through 12. Here’s a second way that Jesus encourages our stewardship by clarifying number two, in a broader outline there, the manner of our stewardship, the manner of our stewardship.

We talked about the motives of our stewardship, number one and number two, the manner of our stewardship. You can see it, you saw it as we read the, the central concern in verses 10-12 is, is matter of faithfulness. That’s the manner of our stewardship. That’s how we execute stewardship. We want to exercise a stewardship faithfully. It’s the chief characteristic of Christ’s stewardship, as we read from Hebrews, he was faithful. So Jesus starts with this, oh so important principle of faithfulness in verse 10. “One,” it’s just the principle here “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.”

Faithful you probably know is the word pistos. It can also be translated there, pistos, can also be translated as believing. Here, faithful is the, is the better translation considering the context, but you take the word faithful or you take the word believing, those are words that have meaning that are in relation to a standard above them, above you, an absolute standard of, a perfect standard of truth, a perfect standard of righteousness. Faithfulness is a matter of righteousness.

And if we’re going to be righteous, we must be faithful, the two are connected. So that’s why Jesus contrasts faithful in this principle in verse 10, the word pistos with the word adikos, adikos. Adikos is translated here in the ESV as dishonest, but it’s usually translated just simply as unrighteous. The D.I.K. little root there, is the root word for righteous or righteousness. Dikaio is to be declared righteous. So here, adikos unrighteous, sometimes in some contexts, maybe even appropriate here, it’s the word untrustworthy or unfaithful. Those who are adikos are those who are not loyal to the truth. Those who are adikos do not adhere to the standard of righteousness, they’re not trustworthy. So boiling it down, unfaithful is unrighteous. Unrighteous is unfaithful, those two are connected.

So this, the manner of our stewardship, how we execute our stewardship has the standard of divine righteousness in view, stewardship is a matter of righteousness. Those who are pistos, who are faithful are those who walk righteously before God. And if you’re going to walk righteously before God, you must be faithful. Those who are adikos are those who are unfaithful, untrustworthy, not reliable, those who do not walk righteously before God, all of that together. So faithfulness here, you can see is the key principle of stewardship. It’s the manner of our stewardship, it’s how we conduct our stewardship, and the measure by the standard by which we’re measured is, are you faithful? It’s not how much you have? It’s what do you do with what you have.

Paul puts it simply very straightforwardly in 1 Corinthians 4:2 applying this to himself as a minister, a minister of the gospel, he says, “It’s required of stewards, that they be found, faithful,” faithful. God gives to his stewards varying, in varying measure, he gives to one this amount of gift and ability and then to another this amount of gift and ability. He gives to all of us different giftings. We’re not all omni competent, omni gifted, only Christ is. We, in reflecting his glory, we each have parts and in different measures and so in order to judge all of us, in order to, to hold all of us to account, it’s not how much we have, in what we have. It’s what we do with what we have. It’s are we faithful? That’s a one size fits all measure of judgment.

Are you faithful? For stewards to be found faithful, stewards must be first tested. And it says here, they’re “Tested with a little, in order that they may be entrusted with much.” Everybody in leadership knows that “Faithful in little means faithful in much.” Everybody in leadership knows unfaithful in little means unfaithful in much. It’s a principle that’s true in all of life, whether it’s the public sector or the private sector, whether it’s in the sacred realm or the secular realm, faithful in little means faithful in much, unfaithful in little, unfaithful in much. You see this in leadership, you see it in business, you see it in governance, you see it in church ministry, faithful in little, faithful in much. Unfaithful in little, unfaithful in much.

We all get this in every area of life. Why do we forget it when it comes to the most important things in life like heaven and eternity? Why do we forget it there? Why do we forget it when we come into the church? Faithful in little, faithful in much, unfaithful in little, unfaithful in much, that’s just a basic principle of normal human life. It’s one we know by instinct, and it’s one we practice by instinct, we don’t even think about it.

Principle’s especially important when it comes to qualifying or disqualifying men for church leadership. You know how Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:9-10, he’s talking about deacon qualification. He says “Let the deacons, let them who are proposed to be deacons, let them also be tested first, then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.”

Deacons are men who are faithful, they’re godly, they’re spiritually minded men, they’re tested, they’re proven, and then they’re found to be blameless, and then they serve. And so when they’re identified as deacons, all of you can know, that’s a guy who’s been tested. That’s a guy who’s been proven, he’s faithful.  Stakes are even higher when it comes to pastors and elders, those who want to be teachers in the church, those who want to handle God’s word, those who have greater influence. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:2, “What you’ve heard from me in the presence of many witnesses,” What is that? It’s the gospel, it’s sound doctrine.

It’s the entire corpus of the faith, the Apostolic Faith. “What you’ve heard from me, Timothy, in the presence of many witnesses,” They’re all there. “Entrust” that body of knowledge and truth “To faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” It’s interesting, in testing faithfulness in the church, to see how people respond when you assign a task to them for which they consider themselves rather overqualified.

When they’re given a task that they may find uninteresting, or, or relatively unimportant, interesting to see what they do with that. Faithfulness is tested in the little things in life, isn’t it? In the seemingly insignificant things, if you can handle things that, that everybody counts as insignificant, little, small, and you’re faithful with that?

Keep the motivation up to know that there’s somebody else watching who counts all the little things as big things and the insignificant things, he sees it all. Person who is mindful of all those things. They’re faithful, they’re faithful in their character, they can handle more responsibility. Those who are faithful in character first, who they are in private is who they really are. They know that.

So they govern themselves, they’re disciplined, their self-controlled, they attend to the fruit of the spirit, before anything in their life. They’re concerned to see growth, change, character, transformed, in order they might not lead anybody astray. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the issues of life.” They get that. Paul tells Timothy, watch your life and your doctrine closely. So watch your character and the things you teach very closely. You do it all the time.

People like that are humble people. They’re teachable. They’re meek. It’s upon that foundation of godly character that God grants them gifts and grants them opportunity to exercise those gifts, to practice faithfulness in using their gifts, developing skill in their giftedness, growing in competency as stewards in what God has given. It all starts and lands on the foundation, the bedrock of godly character. That’s the principle in verse 10. And so we see operating in every sphere of life, faithfulness is the key and those who respect that principle of faithfulness, they reap great rewards. Those who ignore this principle, they do it at their peril, and probably the peril of many others as well.

Look at verse 11. If then Jesus says “If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you’ve not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?” Those verses just illustrate the principle, verse 10, take it forward, but they do it from the negative perspective, so unfaithful in little, unfaithful in much. First half of each verse shows what it’s like to be unfaithful in little. Handling unrighteous wealth in verse 11, that’s a little thing, how you steward what belongs to someone else in verse 12. That’s also the littler thing.

Whoever’s unfaithful in little things won’t be rewarded with greater honor. That is to take on more responsibility here, the true riches and also that which is your own. Let’s start with this little matter of money, wealth, verse 11. Little thing called money we, we talked about the word mammon, last time. I’ll just give you a brief review on that, Jesus has used this word mammon, it’s an Aramaic loan word and it’s used for money here the word mamonas. And that mamonas word from the Syrian background, it points to the idolatrous Syrian god of money, of wealth. So it really does point to the idolatrous temptation of the love of money being devoted to money, like a god, like an idol.

Jesus chose the word mamonas, I think, intentionally to cast this matter of allegiance, what you’re devoted to, in sharp relief and he shows us that how we use money reveals what it is that we worship, are we serving God or money? Where’s our allegiance? What has the loyalty of our hearts? Back to verse 11, in verse 11 here’s the idea, he says if the way you spend money reveals a love of money, it’s idolatry. If you’re unfaithful in the little things like money, it’s idolatry. So if you’re unfaithful in the little things by committing idolatry, why would God entrust to you the true riches? You might say it this way, if you can’t be trusted with Monopoly money, who’s gonna give you a real cash or a credit card.

Faithfulness with money means that we spend and we invest in the way that Jesus commands us to in, verse 9, “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon.” If you don’t do that, then you’re disobedient. If you don’t do that, you’re untrustworthy. So why entrust anything more to you? What are the true riches? End of verse 11, literally Jesus says, “If therefore, in the unrighteous mammon, faithful, you have not been, the true who to you will entrust?” We don’t translate it that way, but it does let you hear the association or the emphasis in the original and what you hear coming across in the original it’s not the true riches, but simply the true.

If you’re not faithful in little things, in the little, who’s going to entrust to you the true? True what? Translators add words like riches, true riches, or wealth, true wealth to this, to clarify this, what’s basic and on its own ata alethinon the true, the true, the true what? True riches, true wealth, but if we drop those clarifying words, wealth, riches, the idea of the true is contrasted with everything that this world’s money is not.

In contrast to this world’s money which has changing value. I mean, we’re going through a period of pretty significant inflation right now, right? Where the money that we thought we had, it doesn’t go as far. Doesn’t happen with the true. The wealth of our age is not truly lasting, it doesn’t hold its value, it’s not eternal, it has no spending power in the age to come. You don’t have that with the true, the true it holds its value forever, eternally. Money now, we, we use it because it gives us power, it gives us ability, and influence, and we can get the things that we want, and do the things that we want. That has no value later, it has no value after you die. The true, it has power, spending power, effectual power for eternity. Maybe we shouldn’t limit the true by putting riches or wealth next to it. Let’s just talk about the true infinite treasure of the eternal kingdom, the true.

All that’s to say, we don’t want to say that earthly money is unimportant. We don’t wanna make that mistake. The money of this temporal age is important, it is useful. The money that we use every day is the currency of our earthly stewardship. It’s a currency of our earthly management. It’s how we get things done, how we spend it speaks volumes about our hearts. It tells a lot about what we love, talks a lot about our wisdom. How we spend money reveals our stewardship. So Jesus broadens the application, in verse 12, to point, going from money in the little things he goes on to greater things. He talks, goes from how we spend money in verse 11, to how we exercise our earthly stewardship in verse 12.

“If you have not been faithful in that which is another’s.” That is, if you’re not a faithful steward, that which is another’s, could be another’s property, could be another’s business, could be another’s reputation, could be another’s fill in the blank. “You haven’t been faithful in that which is another’s.” That is, if you’re not a faithful steward. “Who is going to give you that which is your own?”

How is it going to qualify you to have your own property, your own business, your own reputation? Who’s gonna put you in charge, when they’re doling out what ultimately belongs to them, that which is another’s? What’s that? Back to the unjust steward, think about him. How did he treat that which is another’s? How did he treat his master’s money? How did he treat his master’s properties?

The rents, the relationships with the tenant farmers? How did he handle the stewardship that his master entrusted to him? Well, he squandered it, didn’t he? And his master fired him for it. “You can no longer be manager,” Verse 2, we get that. We think, that’s completely appropriate. We’d done the same thing. We imagine a better set of circumstances here with a steward has not squandered his master’s money, not squandered his master’s resources and relationships and rents and all the rest, but instead, he has proven himself. He’s been faithful, he’s been wise. Now, what’s the master likely to do? The master is going to reward such a steward, isn’t he?

He’s gonna see great potential in this guy, he’s gonna see him as useful, as valuable. He’s going to give him more resources, greater stewardship, greater honor, greater authority, more responsibility, putting him in charge of more and more, to manage more and more, to do more and more. It’s a great honor. Listen, that’s what’s coming for us, if we’re faithful. That’s what’s coming for us, if we’re faithful in this life with the little. If we’re faithful in the stewardship of a little here, now. Jesus told the Twelve this, in Matthew 19:28, he said to you, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

What’s that refer to? First, to the millennial kingdom, that’s specific to the nation of Israel, it’s a role that’s specific to the Twelve. Great honor, a faithful in a little, they’re gonna be faithful in much. They’re going to be entrusted with much. What about us Gentiles, non apostles? What about us? Paul tells the Corinthians there’s a stewardship for non Jews too. There’s a stewardship for the church, the faithful in the church age, 1 Corinthians 6:2 says, Paul says, and this is in a passage of rebuke, but it’s, there’s a truth here, he says, “Or do you not know that the saints,” me and you, “Will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?” So he’s saying, be faithful in little.

Judge the trivial cases of a, in this context, it’s lawsuits among believers, I mean, really? Believer going to law before the courts, the secular courts against another believer? Paul says, are you kidding me? Handle that already. Deal with the little things. Judge the trivial cases because don’t you know, we’re bound to judge the entire world? “Do you not know” verse 3, 1 Corinthians 6 “that we are to judge angels?” How much more than matters pertaining to this life? Jesus himself in Revelation encourages the faithful in the Church of Thyatira, “Those who keep his works to the end.” Another way to say that is those who are faithful.

Those who continue in righteousness, exercise a good stewardship. Revelation 2:26, “The one who is victorious and keeps my works to the end. I will give him authority over the nations.” And then Jesus quotes from Psalm 2:9 about himself. “He will shepherd them with the iron scepter. He will shatter them like pottery.” So this is Jesus pictured ruling in the millennial kingdom and he says “I have received this from my father.” Beloved listen, we exercise a stewardship in this life. We have a stewardship and money is the currency of our stewardship. So let’s be faithful in the little things.

We exercise a stewardship in this life over all that God has entrusted to us, our time, our gifts, our talents, our education, our training, our skill, our experience. What we have. What we have we give an account for all the money and all the rest. Everything that we have our time, our energies, what we have is a gift from God and it’s a gift from God for us to use, to use for his glory. We have it as a stewardship and that means we’re going to give an account for it. Christians exercise a special stewardship over the gospel that he’s entrusted to us, over the word that he was pleased to reveal to us.

Christ gives gifts and he gives gifted people to his local churches, and he gives a measure of gospel influence to every single one of his churches in order they may spread his saving truth, that they may be faithful in their time, in their place, in their area, and be faithful. So listen, what we do in this life. It really does matter. This isn’t for nothing.