Incentives for Faithful Stewardship, Part 1 | How to be a Faithful Steward

Luke 12:41-44

Look at Luke 12. Starting in verse 41 and I’ll read through verse 48, “Peter said, ‘Lord, are you telling this parable,’” The one he just told, “‘Are you telling this parable, for us or for all?’ And the Lord said, ‘Who then, is the faithful and wise manager whom his master will set over his household? To give them their portion of food at the proper time. Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming.’ And he begins to beat the male and female servants and to eat, and drink, and get drunk.

“The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and in an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much. They will demand the more.”

There are four types of people there, two different responses. The first response is a response of faithfulness, of fidelity, to do the masters will and there’s a blessing. There’s another beatitude there. Blessed are those servants and then there’s another response. Really, it’s different levels of unfaithfulness, and there are three of those kinds of people. One in four, according to this parable, respond in faithfulness knowing that the Lord is coming.

You might see this whole text as incentives for faithful stewardship, because Jesus cites both positive incentives and negative incentives. There are blessings for obedience and punishments for disobedience. So, in this parable we’re faced with two very important principles, two defining principles that should frame our thinking, and shape our perspective, and set our priorities, and direct our will, direct all of our behavior. One is the principle of lordship, and the other is the principle of stewardship.

Let’s talk about stewardship first. Look in verse 42, Jesus is overt there and using stewardship language. The manager there, in the ESV, it’s the oikonomos. This is a person who applies the rule of law to the household. He’s there in the household as a manager, as a steward, and he’s ensuring good order. He’s watching over finances, over operations, over how things are conducted, over morale even. This is the household manager. It’s the chief steward of the master’s estate. He watches over the master’s holdings, protects the master’s interests. The master is above all. He owns everything.

The oikonomos he’s entrusted with the responsibility of administrating whatever the master puts under his care. Sometimes he divvies it out, puts somethings under this man’s care and somethings under another man. Sometimes he puts it under one man. Laborers this man, the oikonomos, he labors according to the masters will. He’s attentive, he’s diligent for the masters good.

This assumption of stewardship here is what informs Jesus’ perspective. It’s how he thinks about life, it’s how he thinks about all the people in the world, as stewards. This is what drives his exhortation to us, and we need to think about this like he does because he sees things very clearly. Whatever we have, whatever wealth, talent, gifts, experiences, skills, opportunities, goods, advantages, privileges, whatever it is we have, whatever we call ours, we don’t have any of that, as actual owners, but as stewards.

Never seen a moving van follow a hearse to the cemetery. We understand that, we get that. Our skills, and talents, and all of our experiences, and credentials, and accomplishments, all those things die with us, don’t they? Our achievements erased, forgotten. Our ownership, on this earth of our stuff, that’s gone too. All of our stuff passes to somebody else. Solomon makes much of that in Ecclesiastes, saying, whatever you work for, it’s handed off to somebody else who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish with what you worked so hard to get.

So our ownership is temporary. We get that, we understand that. God’s ownership is permanent by virtue of the fact that he is eternal. He has no beginning and no end. It’s permanent and it’s his because he is the source of all things. He owns all. He’s unchanging, that’s never gonna change. He’s sovereign over all and that takes us to this principle of lordship, which is also here in the text. The ultimate lordship is God’s lordship. He’s the absolute, sovereign Lord, over all things. God is eternal. He has no beginning, no end. He always exists and never changes to exercise ownership and sovereignty over everything that he has created.

In these parables, starting in verses, verse 35 and going to the end of this section, verse 48. Jesus has been using that familiar term kyrios, Lord, Master, and suddenly in these parables, he’s really applying that to himself because he is the returning master. When he comes again in the second coming glory, it’s gonna be clear who the master is, who the slaves are. He’s used that term nine times in those verses. That’s called emphasis folks. These parables portray the day when the son of man is going to come as Lord and he’s going to recompense the world in judgment.

My hope and prayer for all of us, is that we all recognize our stewardship in this life as well, and that we exercise that stewardship faithfully and wisely, as we praise the King of Heaven in his presence. I want us to be there rejoicing because we have executed our stewardship given to us in this time in this place. We’ve exercised our stewardship in a way that pleases the Lord.

So, as we go through this, think about your life. Think about your time. Think about your days, the hours that you have. Think about your weeks. Just do a little budget in your head and see where am I spending my time? What are my priorities? What do I give myself too? What am I too busy for? Because we wanna think about our stewardship, we have very little time. It’s a good reminder that I have an account to give for my life, for the work that I do, and so do you.

So, we’ll look at Peter’s question here, and then Christ’s answer, because he does answer Peter’s question, just not the way Peter wants him to. And as we look at Peter’s question and then we see Christ’s answer, we’re going to find incentives here for faithful stewardship.

Four points in our outline, first couple points, we’ll see the scope and standard of our stewardship. Scope and standard of our stewardship and then we’ll see the sphere and the specter of Christ’s judgment. The sphere and the specter of Christ’s judgment. So, scope, standard sphere, and specter, but let’s start with the first point, which is Peter’s question having to do with the scope of our stewardship. What is the scope of it?

In verse 41, Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” He’s asking there about the scope of Jesus parable. Who’s in the crosshairs of his teaching there? It’s really a question about the scope of stewardship. And why is Peter asking this? What’s prompted his question here? As per usual, Peter speaks for the other men, he steps out in front, he gives voice to what the other men are thinking. Peter’s always saying tell me more. So, quite naturally, Peter is pressing Jesus for more information, he wants elaboration, so he asks for more insight. “Is this, is this parable for us or for all?”

Now, it still raises a number of questions about Peter’s question. Does us mean us leaders? Us Twelve apostles and then the other disciples that are all around us here, are they, these followers, are they the all? Or by us as he really incorporating all, him, himself, the Twelve and all believers? Is he saying, that’s the us and then all is, the rest of the crowd. I mean, all believers have been the focus of his teaching since verse 22. So if that’s the case, all would refer to the rest of the crowd that’s standing there, the unbelieving crowd.

Peter would have assumed that he and the Twelve are within the scope of Jesus parable, that they’re directly in the crosshairs, but now he’s wondering how wide that scope is. How big is that bullseye, anyway? How far does the parable reach? So, since this whole section from verse 22 to 40, that’s been addressed to all of Jesus disciples, perhaps Peter wants to know if Jesus refers only to the Twelve here or to all of Jesus disciples or we could look back to verses 13 to 21 and we could see, clearly Jesus, having been interrupted, he addressed the unbelieving crowd. So maybe Peter wants to know if unbelievers are included as well in the scope of Jesus parable.

It’s not intuitively obvious as we just read over the text here, especially since we see our Lord is not direct in answering Peter’s question. But suppose for a moment that the widest possible scope is in view here that Jesus does intend to include all people and every individual within the scope of the parable. We just said every human being has a stewardship from God. Whatever God is given to you, he expects you to use it according to its design according to its intended purpose for the fulfilling of God’s purposes, which is to convey his goodness to you, and through you, to others, thus bringing glory to him. Great and powerful people, important and significant people, they have a stewardship from God, just like us little people do.

Whoever turns out to be our President, whoever happens to be our governor at any given time, whoever serves as our lawmakers, our judges, our officials, all of our national, state, county, local officials, they all have a very significant stewardship from God and they will all render an account for their stewardship to Christ. It’s good for us to pray for them in that regard, and it’s good every now and again for us to remind them of that stewardship that they have from God, and they will one day give an account to Christ.

What about the rest of us, though? I mean, we’re just regular Joes, right? Plain Janes, regular Joes of the world. Are the hoi polloi off the hook here? I mean, what stewardship really do us little people have; little people in fly over country, no power, no authority. Well, if a steward is someone who has received a gift from God, to use God’s gifts, anything he gives according to its design, according to its intention, to enjoy God’s goodness and then be a conduit of that goodness to other people, so that God is glorified, well then, everyone’s on the hook.

For that, we all have an account for our stewardship to God. Are you an employee? Well, you have a stewardship of a job, and it’s not been granted to you by Walmart, or McDonald’s, or Morgan Stanley brokerage firm, or whatever field you work in. God gave you that job as a gift of his grace and you will give an account to Christ for how you conduct yourself for the purpose of that job. Are you an employer? Well, there’s a specific set of instructions for you as well in the scripture as a master, God has given you the stewardship of employees, of a business, of their income, their benefits, their health, their work environment, their safety. Work is a stewardship from God and you will give an account.

Are you a husband? Then God has given you a wife and he’s given you the stewardship of loving leadership to your wife. There’s a whole lot packed into that. Are you a wife? Well, God has given you a husband and you have the stewardship of being his helpmeet, designed by God given by God to him to help serve his life, his work, his ministry, his purposes, to bring glory to God. The two of you together. Marriage is a stewardship from God, and you will give an account. You parents, God has given you the stewardship of parenthood, to raise those children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. You children, you too have a stewardship, from God, to honor your parents, to obey them when you’re younger and then to honor them for a lifetime.

Listen, the principle of stewardship hits us all. It doesn’t matter if we’re little people or big people. Means every individual in the world, kings and peasants, rich and poor, men and women, old and young, great and small. Everyone, every individual will stand before Christ one day to give an account to him to answer for the stewardship of their life and of their responsibilities. Are you ready for that?

I wanna open a parentheses here, at this point, an important one to convey some gospel hope, because if you’re like me hearing that, even as I’m speaking it, I’m condemned and convicted. If giving the account to Christ has you feeling a bit nervous, listen, that’s a good thing. You feel nervous. If you feel nothing right now, woe be to you. May God give you grace and mercy so that you feel something, some amount of conviction, which is the Spirit’s work to convict the world of sin, and righteousness, and judgment. May he convict you. But if you feel a bit nervous, it’s a good thing. If we’re honest with ourselves all of us come to the realization we’ve sinned, we’ve fallen short of the glory of God. Some degree, to many of us who have significant degree, we’ve blown it in many things, and particularly in this issue of stewardship.

For some of you, this may be the first time you’ve realized you even had a stewardship. Oh, that’s a thing. We’ve been ignorant. We’ve been untaught in these areas and we need to learn. We have a stewardship, every single one of us and it’s granted to us by God above. We’re gonna give an account to Christ one day and as we read, those who are not faithful in stewardship some level of punishment is going to ensue. Punishment awaits, “for the wages of sin is death.”

Listen, this is what the gospel is for. This is what the gospel is such a joy to receive by faith, to know that even though “the wages of sin is death,” and even though our stewardship failures merit death and judgment and punishment, “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.” God has not destined us who believe for wrath. He’s destined us for joy, for glory, for commendation when he comes. The one who will one day judge our stewardship, today that same one can become your Savior.

If you’ll put your faith in Jesus Christ, you can know for sure, know for certain, that today “he’s born your griefs, he’s carried your sorrows, that for your sake he was stricken smitten by God and afflicted. Jesus Christ was pierced for our transgressions. He’s crushed for our iniquities, and upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by his wounds we’re saved, we’re healed.” And we have nothing but joy to look forward to at his coming. Beloved, believe that. For you who know him, for you who know the cross and what it, what it provided for you, an atonement for your sins, for all your fails of stewardship, you’re also covered with the righteousness of Christ because he performed his stewardship perfectly.

So, let’s close that parentheses now. We need gospel hope in times like this, don’t we? Realize though, that these thoughts about stewardship are warranted by the text in asking about the scope of stewardship responsibility, here, Peter brought up more than he knew. He didn’t know what he was getting himself into or us, frankly.

So on to point two in our outline. Jesus wanted Peter to think about his own stewardship and he wanted to think about number two, the sphere of stewardship. The sphere of stewardship. What is the sphere of stewardship? Since all authority in heaven and on Earth has been given to Christ, that means that all people everywhere are accountable to Christ for the stewardship that they have in this world. Paul told the Athenians in Acts 17:30 to 31, he said, “God commands all people everywhere to repent.” Not just those who’ve heard the gospel, not just those who grow up in evangelical churches, they’re all commanded to repent.

Because he’s fixed a day, on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and of this he’s given us assurance, assurance to all by raising him from the dead. John describes that day in Revelation 20, that day when Christ ascends the Great White Throne, to judge the living and the dead, great and small, all of them standing before the throne. It says there that “the books were opened and another book was open, which is the Book of Life. But the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. According to their works, they were judged. The sea gave up the dead, who were in it, death and Hades gave up the dead, who were in them. They were judged. Each one of them, according to what they had done.”

Though, technically, Christ’s answer brilliantly leaves this scope of this text open-ended, could apply to anybody reading this under a stewardship from God, and that’s everyone. Everyone reading this can see they are going to be held accountable, but, as believers, we can dial this in a bit, we can narrow the focus, narrow the scope based on the parable Christ gives.

What duty has Christ given us to perform? What’s the sphere of our stewardship as believers? Look at verse 42, Peter said verse 41, “‘Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?’” Verse 42, the Lord said, “‘Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time?’” What’s the answer? Put simply, the sphere of our stewardship is the master’s household. Our specific task in this sphere of stewardship to ensure the household has its portion of food at the proper time. It’s very simple. We, with believing eyes, can see more clearly than an unbeliever can see in this text. An unbeliever, at least, could see from this text that there’s the master’s household is anything that the master owns.

So the whole world is under the scope of his responsibility as stewardship. But here, with believing eyes, we see something that they can’t see. We can see this narrowed down and the master, to the master’s household that we’re part of and our task is to ensure that the masters’ household has its portion of food at the proper time. When Jesus answers Peter’s question, you remember Peter’s questions is prompted by another parable, and Jesus answers with yet another parable, but he uses the same imagery of household stewardship. The world in the first century was run by slave labor. The oikonomos, the household steward, he was a slave, he was a skilled slave, a trained one, an educated one, but he was still a slave and Jesus pictures the household manager as the slave who has the stewardship over the rest of the slave’s staff.

Word for household Jesus uses here. It’s not the usual word, which is, oikos. The word that Jesus uses here to talk about the household is the word therapeia, from which we get our word therapy. So technically therapeia refers to medical treatment. Jesus’ use of this word had to have warmed the heart of the good physician, Luke, who’s writing this. We see that word therapeia used as medical treatment in Luke 9:11. It’s also used of healing, like the healing of the nations in Revelation 22:2. But the way that Jesus uses the word therapeia here, it’s a metaphor to refer to the entire slave staff. They are the therapeia; collectively they are the therapeia in that household. The slaves here are portrayed here as, they’re serving the purpose of providing intimate daily care, private service to their master, therapeia to the master.

So the household manager, as chief steward, he oversees all of them. He cares for all of them. He makes sure they’re well fed, well provisioned, completely provided for. Notice the word translated, their proportion of food. That’s the word sitometrion, which refers to a ration, a regular allowance. It’s measured out portions of grain or food. One commentator says these rations on Roman estates were, were either served out daily, or weekly, or monthly. So it’s a portion of the master’s goods that are seconded to the servant of the slave in order for him to be able to do his job. Most of this has to do with food. Food that they could eat, provide for their families with, food that they could even sell, or provided for other necessities in life, and that’s Jesus’ concern here.

Jesus tells Peter the sphere of his stewardship is the household. Then that’s why I believe that Jesus here has subtly narrowed the focus of stewardship to the sphere of the church, which is the special purview of believers. In the New Testament, Paul often uses the image of a household to refer to the church. The church is “the household of faith” in Galatians 6:10. It’s the “household of God” in Ephesians 2:19. “Church of the Living God,” verse, 1 Timothy 3:15. “Pillar and buttress of the truth”, Peter 2. 1 Peter 4:17, he says that, “it’s time for judgment to begin at the household of God.” So it’s commonly, this picture, this image of the church itself.

So we can discern here in Jesus’ answer, that he wants Peter to see, that all believers, all Christians, are in the scope of this text. All believers serve in the sphere of their stewardship, they serve the household of faith as their special charge, as the great privilege and responsibility that’s theirs. This is a blessed stewardship that we have as Christians, isn’t it?