Incentives for Faithful Stewardship, Part 4 | How to be a Faithful Steward

Luke chapter 12, I’m going to start by reading just to set some context, back in verse 35, we’ve already covered that section, but we’ll start back there just to lay it all out there before us starting in Luke 12:35. And Jesus says, “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.

“Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at the table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Those words, that teaching, that parable prompted Peter to ask a question. It’s one that all the Apostles really were wondering about, and it’s a question that we have too. In verse 41, “Peter said, ‘Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?’” For us apostles, or for all believers, or he could have been saying for us believers, or is he telling it for all people. What’s the scope of the instruction here Lord? Who is included?

The Lord answered his question, but not directly. He answers in verse 42, “The Lord said, ‘Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give him 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 of his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed incoming,’ and 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 he does not” expect, “expect him and at an hour he does not know, he’ll 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.’”

The Lord will evaluate the heart attitudes of all his servants, and we could just say all people. He’ll evaluate the heart attitudes of everyone and the standard of that evaluation will be the servant’s knowledge of the Lord’s will. What does he know? What does he understand? The Lord knows. Based on what every person knows, the Lord will evaluate his attitude of respect or disrespect. Insolence or regard. So we’ll consider these next two types of servants together, because both are evaluated on their knowledge of the Lord’s will. Look at those two, starting verse 47, “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.”

Look, you don’t want to receive any beating. Okay, let’s just get that down. When I kind of explain the word, you’ll understand, you don’t want that, but the first servant here he hears Jesus’ words, verse 35, “Stay dressed for action. Keep your lamps burning.” And he says, Nah. I got other stuff to do. I’m busy. He hears Jesus describe the master’s desire for relational intimacy; closeness, in verse 37, come inside, share table fellowship with the servants. He hears in verse 42, how the master cares for his servants. Shrugs, moves on. The man knew. I, I know there are some people listening right now, you know.

You know, because I just told you. This man knew, at least at some point in his life. He just didn’t care enough to do anything about it. Time goes by. I mean he’s got other things going. There’s a life to live, kids to raise soccer practice for the kids, guys night out, ladies night out, whatever. What he once knew fades into a distant memory or disappears altogether in the fog of time, in the fog of busyness. Knowledge didn’t produce any conviction of sin. He listened to sermons like this one, and he hardened his heart to any conviction. Didn’t experience any remorse. There’s no repentance, and so the knowledge it’s gone. Gone.

Jesus portrays another kind of unbelieving heart here. It’s a cold and indifferent heart. They say indifference is the coldest form of hatred, isn’t it? Who could hate or show such cold indifference to a master like this? Such a loving, caring master. A master who would throw off his own royal garments, take on servant’s garments and make his servants sit at the table so that he could serve them food, and fellowship with them. You ever heard of any ruler like that? Who could hate somebody like this? Who could be indifferent? Who could dare blow him off, thinking nothing of disobeying the masters will?

James 4:17, “The one who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him it is,” what? “sin.” He’s sinning against knowledge. He’s sinning against the light. Listen, this punishment to, like the other, his punishment is utterly just. He’s going to receive a severe beating before he’s remanded to his place of eternal torment, along with the rest of the unfaithful and unbelieving servants.

In terms we’re familiar with, he’s horsewhipped here. He’s receiving lashes with a cat of nine tails. He’s getting a scourging. But after that it’s, that’s when the real torment begins. Paul said 1 Corinthians 16:22, “if anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be anathema.” Let him be cursed. Let him be damned. That’s the servant who sinned against the light that he had, what he was once taught.

And I just gotta tell you, it saddens me to think about some of the people who’ve sat in this church. Maybe still sitting in this church right now today hearing the sermons. They see evidence you, evidence of your change lives every single week throughout the week and they shrug, walk out as if this is nothing special. I think about students, I think about younger people, you younger people. I pray for you.

That you’ll hear what I’m saying. That your heart will soften. That you’ll not be caught up in the distractions of this world. That you won’t give your attention to what’s on the Internet. That you won’t give yourself to entertainment, that your, your mind will not be flooded with video games and desires for video games and desire for entertainment and desire for social connections with people you don’t even know. That you won’t be, your heart won’t be filled with desire for sexual immorality and satisfying all kinds of covetous desires. Young people, it’s a dangerous world.

 The porthole to hell can sometimes be in your own home. Flee, flee. Some older people who’ve attended here, also, hearing and not perceiving, seeing and not believing and with all of you who are like that, in those in that category, I’m pleading, give your heart to Christ. Turn to him because the more light that you have, the more time you spend in this church listening to what I’m saying you can see it on the pages of this text. I’m just telling you what Jesus is saying here. He’s teaching, he’s the one speaking through me to you. He’s confronting you. He’s calling you. He’s pleading with you. Will you repent?

The more light that you have, the more you’re responsible for. Jesus said that, in verse, he’s saying that in verse 48 we’re gonna get to that. Peter also warned 2 Peter 2:21, “Would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness. And after knowing it to turn back from the Holy Commandment delivered to them.” Friends, “it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Our God is consuming fire and our Christ wields a sword and he’s going to use it. He wields a whip and he will use it.

There’s one more servant Jesus is going to evaluate when he comes. First half of verse 48, Jesus says, “But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating, he received a light beating.” The Old Testament made provision for sins that were high handed, sins that were kind of done presumptive, sins that were committed presumptuously, and then those like what’s described here, sins done unintentionally or sins of ignorance. They’re still sins.

The ignorant person, though, it says here in the ESV “a light beating,” that’s not really the sense. It’s not like Jesus looks the guy holding the whip and says Oh, lighten up on this one. Lighten up. No, just fewer blows. Fewer is actually the word there, oligos. He gets fewer blows than the other guy. The one who can’t claim ignorance, that guy knew and he ignored. This guy didn’t know, and yet he still sinned in ignorance, so he gets fewer blows.

Listen just a footnote here. This, this is one of the texts in Scripture that demonstrates a gradation of punishments in hell. So that the, the good Mormon, you know, the Mormon neighbor that we live next to and we love them, they’re really friendly, but they don’t have the gospel. In fact, they’re peddling a false gospel, but they’re living moral lives and having a, you know, big families that you’ll really enjoy their children and everything like that. They’re not going to be getting the same lashes as Adolf Hitler. Right? We understand that, we would, we would say we understand that there is gradation of punishment in Hell. This is what this is teaching here.

But listen that Mormon, he’s still gonna be assigned his place because he does not have the gospel. He’s gonna be assigned to his place in Hell along with Hitler, along with Stalin, along with so many of the, we can see in our world today, who are just like that.

This guy, sinning in ignorance, he’s still, he’s an unbeliever, clearly an unbeliever. He’s an unfaithful servant. He doesn’t get a pass just because he claims ignorance, just because he has less light. He’s still got the light of divine creation that provides him with all the light he needs to do what’s right by thanking God, honoring him as God and giving thanks repenting of his sins when he fails to do what he knows.

In fact, I want to show you this turn over to Romans 1:18. 1:18, just take a look there because Paul goes into this catalog, really, he goes into a catalog of sins that really describe America right now. Listen if, if God excused those who have never heard of Jesus who never heard the gospel, because maybe missionaries never visited them. If God, if God truly considers their ignorance and gives them access to heaven apart from the gospel, apart from the name of Jesus Christ, then what are we to make of verses like Acts 17:30, that “The times of ignorance God overlooked but now,” now, “he commands all people everywhere to repent.” Is that true or not? Is he gonna judge all the world as he says in this text, Acts 17:31. Is he gonna judge him by Christ or not?

Paul tells us in Romans 1:18 through 21, says there in this whole text that no one is truly ignorant. No one is fully ignorant. As it turns out everyone, every single human being, has some pretty profound knowledge of God. Paul says, verse 18, that “they suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” That term for suppress is like, picture some kid in a pool in the backyard and he’s trying to take one of those big inflatable beach balls and hold it underneath the water, and that truth just that, that beach ball just keeps jumping up outside the pool, right? But he tries really hard and the stronger he gets, the bigger he gets, the better he’s able to hold that down and that’s exactly what the world looks like. Kids have to be taught to be atheists.

They all come into this world kind of assuming God is; like uh, how else could I get here? Yeah, that’s good. Exactly. But as they grow, as they get older as they come up with more philosophical muscle, they hold that beach ball down, they hold that truth down in unrighteousness. Verse 19, tells us there by the Holy Spirit that “what can be known about God is plain to them. Because God has shown it to them.”

Okay, so who’s right? The person who says, oh, I don’t know anything. This isn’t plain to me. Who’s right that person testifying about themselves or God? God says he’s shown it to you. You’re gonna dispute him. Good luck with that. Verse 20, God has shown them his invisible attributes. What has he shown them that’s invisible? His eternal power and his divine nature. They’ve been clearly perceived.

Huh, the unbeliever, the God-rejecting, the secular, that said, I don’t see any evidence for God anywhere, uhuh. Clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made. So they’re without excuse, because verse 21 says, “although they knew God,” Calvin called that the census divinitatis, “they knew God, they just didn’t honor him as God or give thanks to him.” In a sense of him, a sense of the divine. I know, I know, I know, we continue going down this route here, but that’s enough to show you that no one can claim absolute utter ignorance of God.

In fact, turn the page and look at Romans 2:14. 2:14, Paul tells us what God sees when he looks at the heart of the so called ignorant. Make no mistake, they know enough to be accountable “for when Gentiles who do not have the law,” that is they don’t have the Law of Moses. They don’t have revelation written in a book. “By nature, they do what the law requires. They’re a law to themselves, even though they don’t have the Law.” How is that? How can that be? Well, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. How did that get there? God put it there. They’re, they’re created in his image, and so they have the Law of God inscribed on their hearts. They have a sense of God, they know what’s right and wrong, what they ought to do, and ought not to do, what they should do, what they should not do, right here.

The law of, the work of the law is written on their hearts, and they can’t claim ignorance. Why? Because they’ve got a conscience within them, and their conscience is going to reveal that their conscience reveals or is in agreement with God. Their conscience bears witness their conflicting thoughts either accuse or excuse them. “On that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.” They say they’re atheists. They say they don’t know. They say there’s no evidence. They’re lying to you. They’re holding it secret, secret that they know.

They flaunt their sin. They flaunt their depravity. They take great pride in it, almost to try to outdo themselves in showing you, I’m not accountable to God, I can do whatever I want to. They’re like petulant children. Now they know, they know.

Go back now to Luke 12:48. This ignorant man claims ignorance, so called ignorant man. He’s also received a stewardship from God and he too will give an account to Christ. He’s not going to be excused for ignorance because his ignorance is willful. We just saw that in Romans 1, it’s willful. It reveals an insolent disregard for the masters will.

Alfred Plummer says this guy, seeing he is a servant, he might have known his masters will, had he been anxious to find it out. Moms you ever see that with your kids? Well, you didn’t tell me not to draw on the, on the wall. You know you didn’t tell me. You didn’t tell me not to eat all the cookies. I should have to tell you that? If you had cared you would have sought the master’s will. Mom, can I draw all over this wall with my crayons? My color marks, can’t do that? No. Because I care what my Mom thinks. Mom can I eat all the cookies? Is that OK? No, it’s not. Okay, I just wanna do your will, Mom.

Leon Morris says, “We’re apt to be disturbed by the thought that one who sins in ignorance will be punished. But we must bear in mind there is no such thing as absolute moral ignorance.” And then he says, “This God’s servant must make every effort to find out what God’s will is and do it. All are accountable.” End quote. So true. We’re all accountable.

None of us can claim ignorance, none can shrug it off. This man has been content really to suppress the truth. He’s been content to stay ignorant because he wants to avoid accountability. He doesn’t wanna hear anything that’s coming out of this book. He didn’t want to inform his conscience. He wants to just keep on doing what he wants to do. That is not going to fly on the day that Jesus Christ visits him. As the brilliant light of the glory of Christ return, his mask of this so called ignorant man, his mask is going to be ripped away. As the secrets of his heart come out and are exposed on his face, as his mouth gives testimony, you knew this, didn’t you? Yeah I did.

They didn’t know their master’s will because they didn’t want to know his will. So this insolent lazy attitude is going to be revealed, it’s going to be punished along with the rest of the unbelieving, the rest of the unfaithful. Listen, God is not under, no obligation, to give more to one who squanders and neglects what he’s already received. In fact, the principle is that without using what he has been given, even what he has will be taken away. Luke 8:18, “Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has more will be given, and from the one who has not even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”

 As Jesus said in his rebuke to the Laodicean church, which we read earlier in the service. He says, “I counsel you to buy from me.” He says several things there, and then he says, “Salve to anoint your eyes. So that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous.” Don’t be indifferent, lazy, insolent, “be zealous, and repent,” and then this, “behold, I stand at the door and knock.” Let me just tell you, this is not an evangelistic verse. God’s knocking on the door of your heart, he just opened the door and let him in, please. He’s just waiting, waiting for you to, no, that’s not what this is saying. “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone of my servants hears my voice opens the door I’ll come into him, eat with him, and he with me.” What’s it describing?

The table fellowship back here in verse 37, “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he’ll dress himself for service, have them recline at the table. He’ll come and serve them.” Why? Because previous verse they are going to open the door at once immediately when he comes and knocks. Revelation 3:20 is connected right here to Luke 12. Those servants, we need to be like them, ready, waiting, watchful for the, when the master comes home from the wedding feast. When he knocks, we immediately open to him.

You know what he’s gonna do? Rejoice. He’s gonna rejoice with us. He’s gonna say, hey, you sit down I got so much to tell you, so much to bring to your attention, let me, let me tell you what happened here, I’ve been praying for you, let me, let me explain it. Man, what a day.

The Lord’s grace is a motivation for us, it’s encouragement to us, to excel in our stewardship. Look at the last part of verse 48, we’ll draw it to a close, “Everyone to whom much was given of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much they’ll demand the more.” Now, makes perfect sense, just the way Jesus said it there. If we think carefully, but just a word of clarification that those are parallel statements, we can hear that. But they’re not synonymous.

They, they’re saying slightly different things, related but not synonymous. In the first case, when Jesus says “Everyone to whom much was given of him much will be required.” Think about that guy in the company who makes an honorable salary, to live a middle class life. He’s making one level of pay for work performed. The guy higher up from him up the corporate ladder. Who makes that six figure salary or even, I guess in these days, would be a seven figure salary. Who does the company expect to get more out of? Who do they consider they have owner, more ownership over? It’s the one they’re paying more, right? So if God has given you a surplus of anything, much will be required of you. There’s more expected.

In the second case, when Jesus says “from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.” He’s not making the same point. He’s making a different one. To give someone something is one level of stewardship, to entrust someone with something, that’s on a whole different level. You could think of it like the difference between being a beneficiary of a will, inheriting some amount of money or being entrusted as an executor of the will. Entrusted to distribute the funds of the will and the assets of the will faithfully.

The one who has been given a gift, one level of stewardship. The one who’s been given a trust, like us Christians, trusted with the gospel, pastors and elders entrusted with the stewardship of souls, entrusted with Christ’s precious sheep. Those whom he shed his blood to die for. That’s a whole other level of accountability, isn’t it?

Let me make two applications as we close here, one for unbelievers, for non-Christians who are listening, and another for believers. For those of you who are not yet Christians, what are you waiting for? You’ve been listening to this sermon, my friend, and maybe you’ve been listening to some other sermons as well. Listen, you know now, it’s a dangerous thing for you to ignore this exhortation. It’s dangerous to refuse to repent of your sins, knowing what you now know. Put your faith in Christ Jesus, because all of us at one point were sitting exactly where you are, hearing sermons like this and then provoked into repentance. By exhortations just like this, repent of your sins. Put your faith in Jesus Christ. Follow in obedience as Lord, because he’s coming one day, and so you need to heed the biblical warning: Behold, now is the favorable time.

Why is it favorable? Because he’s not standing there with a sword ready to cut you up. He’s not standing there with a whip. It’s a favorable time because there is time. Now is the favorable time, 2 Corinthians 6:2, “Behold today is the day of salvation.” There’s time for you to repent of your sins. There’s time right now to bow the knee. There’s time to reckon with the fact of your accountability before Christ, there’s time to embrace the stewardship you’ve received from God, because you will give an account one day.

For you Christians, especially us members of Grace Church. We’ve been so incredibly blessed, haven’t we? Greatly, greatly blessed. I pinch myself all the time and say this is real, it is. We’re here. We’ve received a trust. We’ve got great gifts, gifting, competences, all the rest, but we’ve received something even greater. We’ve gotten a trust from God, a trust from Christ. We’ve been entrusted with an eternal gospel, and we have a charge to keep. We have this treasure in jars of clay, 2 Corinthians 4:7. We’re breakable, and that’s the point, because the more we break, the more it opens up and it shows and reveals the surpassing power belongs to God, and not to us, reveals the treasure inside when we’re broken.

But we have stewardship of our jar. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:10, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he’s done in the body, whether we’re good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.” That’s what we’re called to do. We have a gospel that we keep and guard. We guard it and keep it by giving it away, by proclaiming it.

What a high and holy privilege we have as Christians, as believers, as members of Grace Church, to take this gospel to the nations. We do it starting right here in Greeley, at our own Jerusalem and Judea, then to Colorado, then to the nation, then to the uttermost parts of the earth, Amen.

Father, thank you so much for our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for his clear, incisive teaching. We thank you for how he gets to the heart of the matter with such vivid imagery and, a graphic portrayal of what is coming. We as Christians cannot wait to see him. We love him so much and we long to be reunited with him in person. To see the one that we’ve read about, to embrace him, to fall down at his feet and worship. We want to be those upon his return, that when he knocks that door flies open and we fall into his arms and share fellowship, and joy. Thank you so much for what Christ has taught us and please bless us today. In Jesus’ name, amen