Well, it'd be great if you could just keep your Bible open at Luke chapter 12.
It's lovely to be with you this morning.
Great to be back in this part of Edinburgh.
Nicky and I used to live just about half a mile from here in Marchment.
And every day I used to walk the beautiful walk to work through the meadows.
Lovely, lovely walk.
Sometimes we did come up to this leafy part of town, Brunsfield.
And if we were feeling really upmarket, we would continue on to Morningside.
I want to bring greetings as well from Greenview Church in Glasgow.
It's been good over the years to have links between Greenview and Brunsfield.
And despite the chasm between us, between Glasgow and Edinburgh,
it's good to be united in the things of the gospel.
I want to just read also a verse just before I pray from 2 Corinthians chapter 8.
And I'm just going to read this verse that's going to help us think about this passage in Luke as well.
So let me read and then I'll pray.
This is 2 Corinthians 8 and verse 9.
It says,
Our Father, we pray that as we now open your words, that you will open the eyes of our hearts to see Jesus,
to see more of your will for our lives, to grasp more of the purposes of your kingdom,
to change our desires towards the things of you, the things of God, the things of Christ.
And we ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, according to Jessie J, who I don't listen to very often,
but according to Jessie J, it's not about the money, money, money.
She don't want your money, money, money.
She just wants to make the world dance.
Forget about the price tag.
It ain't about the cha-ching, cha-ching.
It ain't about the ba-bling, ba-bling.
She just wants to make the world dance.
And it's not about the price tag.
Well, the lyrics sound good, and it certainly sells well.
But is it detached from the real world that we live in?
I think it is.
Because we live in a world, don't we, where people are rather obsessed with money.
They do want the money, money, money.
Indeed, Jessie J herself has a reported worth of 17 million pounds.
This is the world in which we live.
It's a world in which the rich are envied.
It's a world in which 70% of UK adults play the national lottery regularly.
It's a world full of scrambles for promotion and higher salaries.
It's a world full of endless upgrades to our phones and our homes and our cars.
If our society has forgotten anything, it is certainly not the price tag.
Britain is dancing today to the tune of money.
But we need to understand that this is not something new.
This is not a 21st century or even Western phenomenon.
Indeed, one of the surprises, perhaps, as we study Luke chapter 12, is seeing that in Jesus' day, the world was plagued with this problem.
Jesus, speaking in verse 30 of this chapter, speaks of the pagan world running after material things.
The first century world was chasing money like a greyhound chases the rabbit.
You know how that goes, the greyhound chasing the rabbit and never quite catching it.
That's our generation, and it was Jesus' generation.
The greed of gold is not a new problem.
It is as old as the sinful heart of man.
Then and now, we need to hear the challenging words of Jesus Christ.
We need to hear these prophetic words that will cut and will challenge us in a materialistic world.
Now, as we come towards Jesus' words, I want you to notice something that is very important.
This was very significant.
As I was studying this week, this observation that really opened up the passage to myself.
And it's this, that if you look down at verse 13, notice something important.
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus.
And then if you look down at verse 15, then he said to them, that is to the crowd.
Now, it's crucial to see that verses 15 to 21 is Jesus speaking to the crowd.
Now, who is the crowd?
The crowd are a range of people who aren't yet following Jesus.
That's who the crowd is in the Gospels.
Now, there's a great deal of variety in the crowd.
People are not all the same in the crowd.
There are those who are curious and want to learn more about Jesus.
There are others who are indifferent to Jesus and not really listening.
There are others still who are hostile towards Jesus, like the Pharisees.
So there's variety within the crowd.
But what binds the crowd together is that they are not yet followers of Christ.
In this sense, the crowd are to be distinguished from the disciples.
The crowd surrounds Jesus with interest.
But the disciples follow Jesus with intensity.
And there's still that differential today as we think about evangelism.
We've just been talking about evangelism together.
There's often a crowd.
There's often the group of people who surrounds the church and the witness of the church.
But there's that distinction, isn't there, between those who are simply there in the crowd,
whether hostile or curious or indifferent, and those who actually begin to follow the Lord Jesus.
You will notice that from verse 22, Jesus then addresses the disciples.
So it's important to see that though Jesus is speaking about money in both of these sections,
he's speaking to two different groups.
Jesus has something different to say to the crowd, the world,
than he does to then say to his followers.
For the crowd, he has a serious warning.
And for the followers, he has an encouragement, a word of encouragement to you if you are a follower of Jesus.
So let's look at two things this morning in the time remaining.
First of all, a warning to crowds who never have enough.
That's what we see in the first part of the passage.
A warning to crowds who never have enough.
Verses 13 to 21.
Jesus, as we've been saying, as you've been hearing in recent weeks, is journeying towards Jerusalem.
He's made the decisive turn towards his goal, which is the city of Jerusalem,
and which is ultimately the cross.
And as Jesus journeys towards Jerusalem, he is traveling and teaching.
He is teaching on the way.
His disciples are following him.
And as they follow him on this epic and unique journey,
Jesus is teaching.
Indeed, much of the teaching of Luke's gospel comes in the midst of this decisive journey.
Also, as he stops in various towns, people in the town come out and they crowd around Jesus.
And as the crowd comes around Jesus, he's also preaching to them.
So he's teaching his disciples on the one hand, but he's also preaching.
He's evangelizing, you might say, the crowd.
And here we see a crowd, that's the context here, is surrounding the Lord Jesus.
And what's happening here is that there's an ad hoc evangelistic sermon.
It's interesting how often in the gospels and in Acts, the sermons are ad hoc.
They're not, you know, pre-planned the way that we tend to do them.
Very often they happen in a moment.
They happen in an instant, as happens here.
Jesus doesn't raise the topic of money.
A man in the crowd does.
This unnamed man asked Jesus a question.
Verse 13, he asked if Jesus will settle a dispute about inheritance.
This man's in some kind of inheritance dispute with his brother.
And in these days, often financial disputes would be brought to the Jewish rabbis.
The Jewish rabbis were considered to be experts in the law of God.
And so they would become the judge and jury in these cases.
They would decide what money went where.
And so Jesus is being treated as a judge and as a rabbi.
And more than that, he is being pressed here to not only sit upon the case, but to make a judgment on the case.
You notice the man's not saying to Jesus, let's just have the case out.
Let's just adjudicate.
He's pressing Jesus to make a judgment in his favor.
Tell my brother to give me my inheritance.
Now, Jesus, as we might expect, has little interest in settling this case.
This is partly due to the nature of Jesus' mission.
Jesus didn't come into the world to help us save our pennies.
Jesus came into the world to save our souls.
So this is outside the orbit of Jesus' mission.
But I think even more than that, even more deeply here, the reason for Jesus' lack of interest is he sees a deeper problem.
He sees a heart problem.
It can hardly be an accident that having refused the request of this man, Jesus launches into a warning about greed.
I think reading between the lines, he is reading the heart of this man.
He is seeing something of the greedy motivations of this man.
And he is warning the man and the crowd of the dangers of greed.
He says that the people are to be on guard against greed.
It's the image of a soldier who is constantly on guard in case an enemy pounces upon him.
Jesus says that greed is like an enemy.
It's a threat.
It's a danger.
It's going to attack you.
It's going to overcome you.
Be on guard against the danger of greed.
And the sense here, it's in the continuous tense, which means that we are to go on guarding against greed.
Greediness is not something you just deal with on day one of being a disciple.
It's not like you hear a sermon on it the first time and you repent of your greediness and you become generous towards God.
And then you never need to hear another sermon on greed.
It doesn't work like that.
We are to go on guarding against the danger of greed.
And this is not something we tend to hear today, is it?
Greed in general is not condemned when it's on a personal basis.
We may condemn the greed of those bankers.
But at least in our own personal lives, we don't really censure each other for greed, do we?
You know, if someone buys a lavish car or goes on a very expensive holiday, we don't tend to frown upon it in any way, do we?
We indeed encourage indulgence in our culture.
We see it as a good thing to have as much as possible.
Good for you, well done to you, is often the attitude.
And yet Jesus reminds us here that life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions.
That's an amazing little phrase, isn't it?
I was thinking memory verses, I was thinking it would be a great verse for us to memorize.
Imagine if you'd memorize this verse and then you go shopping.
It would be helpful, wouldn't it?
You're thinking, will I, won't I?
And then the verse comes into your mind.
I don't know what the actions would be, but life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
How many purchases would we not make if we had that in mind?
But a year ago, we were moving house, Nicky and I.
And I was just astonished at how much stuff we have accumulated over just 15 years.
When we started out, we had absolutely nothing.
This time when we moved, it took an hour and a half to unpack the van.
I was embarrassed by the amount of possessions we had.
But Jesus warns us that life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions.
Life isn't about possessions.
Think about the funerals that you attend.
How many funerals have you attended where people have paid tribute to the person's stuff?
You ever been to a funeral like that?
Where they get up the front and they itemize all the possessions that the individual accumulated?
A hundred things, five hundred things, a thousand things.
Is that what we talk about?
Isn't the focus upon the person's faith?
The person's family?
The person's relationships?
What the person did?
Nobody cares how much stuff they accumulated.
If anything, the more stuff the person has, the more hassle it's going to be for the family,
who have to either distribute it or discard it.
This parable is a case study of the folly of living for the accumulation of stuff.
It's about a man who not only has a lot of possessions,
but a man who thinks life is about having lots of possessions.
The issue in this parable is not that the man is wealthy.
It is not a sin in the Bible to have money.
Men like Abraham and Job and David and Solomon, if you read the Bible,
were men of significant means.
Some people, by virtue of birth or labor, acquire greater wealth than others.
Wealth in itself is not condemned in Scripture.
Indeed, it is part of God's good creation.
That's not the issue Jesus is condemning.
Notice that the man is already rich at the start of the story.
He is called a certain rich man.
He's already relatively wealthy, but one year he enjoys an abundant harvest.
He moves, if you like, from middle income to upper level income.
He moves from millionaire to billionaire, perhaps.
And the trouble is, his immediate thought is to hoard his wealth for himself.
His current barns aren't big enough to hold all of the produce.
So he plans to tear them down and build some mega barns for his mega bucks.
It never seems to occur to him to do anything else with the bumper harvest than keep it to himself.
His first and only thought is to fill his own life with stuff and to fill his own life with comfort.
Notice the repeated use of the word my, which comes four times in this parable,
and the use of the word I, which comes eight times in the original language.
The problem with this man is that he is obsessed with his own self-indulgence.
He is storing up things for himself, verse 21, and he is not being rich towards God.
And the scary thing is that he's also deluded.
He has a baseless confidence that his self-indulgent life will last a long time.
Notice his reference to many years in verse 19.
He wrongly assumes that his life of indulgent luxury will last many years,
when in fact it won't even last the night.
That very night, God says to him, verse 20,
You fool.
Fool used in the Old Testament of the person who lives without reference to God,
who lives as if there is no God,
who lives without wisdom.
You fool.
God says this very night,
your life will be demanded from you.
And what will happen
with all of your possessions?
As we think about this,
we should be so thankful
for the Lord Jesus Christ, shouldn't we?
Jesus Christ, too, is the very opposite
of this man.
A man full of the fear of the Lord.
A man full of wisdom.
A man focused entirely upon
the will of God and the kingdom of God.
A man who didn't store up treasure for himself,
but a man who gave up
all of the treasures.
Who vested himself
of the splendor of heaven
and the glory of heaven
and came down into this world as a man.
One who was not selfish,
but selfless.
Who became
the servant.
Who not only gave up
all of his stuff,
but gave up his very self
when he died
for our sins.
How wonderful a Savior we have.
And what a warning
this is to us
who are living
for the things of this world
rather than living
for the Savior.
What a challenge
to the crowds
who are dancing
to the tune of materialism.
What a warning
to those who really do think
that life consists
in how much stuff
you acquire.
A world where people
live for luxury
and self
and for cozy retirement
and for the next holiday.
A world where people
live for the creation
rather than the creator.
That's the world we live in.
And this is a great parable
to help communicate
the gospel to them.
This is one of the most
effective ways
to share the gospel
with people today
using the stories
that Jesus told,
the parables.
Communicating a story
like this
and showing the
pointlessness
and futility
of it all.
There's a pastor
in America
named Mark Dever
and he's a very good evangelist
and he tells
a great illustration.
He says,
you need to have
the why conversation
with your non-Christian friend.
Here's how the why conversation goes.
You can practice this this week.
So it goes like this.
Your friend says to you,
good news,
I've been accepted
to university.
You say,
that's wonderful.
Why do you want to go there?
And they say,
well, you know,
I want to study
in business
and I want to get
my degree.
Great.
That's wonderful.
And why do you want
to get your degree?
Well, because
once I get my degree
at university,
I can go into business.
Brilliant.
And then what's going
to happen after that?
And they say,
well, you know,
after I do well in business,
hopefully we'll get promoted
and get to the top
of the company.
That's great.
And then what's going
to happen after that?
Why do you want to
get to the top
of the company?
Well, once I get
to the top of the company,
I might try and acquire
some other companies
and maybe run
a number of
different businesses
and get really wealthy.
Oh, that's great.
And why do you want
to do that?
Well, you know,
once I've got all
my possessions and stuff,
I guess I'll probably
want to settle down
and get married.
Maybe have a few children.
That's brilliant.
So what are you going
to do once you've got
the businesses
and the money
and the family?
You know,
what's next?
Well, I suppose
maybe I'll retire early
and, you know,
start going on
lots of cruises
every year.
And brilliant.
That's great.
And what about
after that?
And he says
every time he's had
the conversation,
people will say,
I don't know.
I guess I'll just die.
And some people,
this is in all honesty,
some people have said
to him,
when I think about it,
my life is pretty pointless.
I hadn't thought
of that before.
Jesus exposes
and we need to expose
actually the pointless lives
that most of us are living
and that we lived
before we knew Christ
if we are Christians.
By the way, too,
this is also a challenge
to Christians.
Even though Jesus
is directing this
at the unbeliever,
as we listen in,
we need to ask ourselves
the question,
could this be true of us?
Could this be true of us?
Second thing,
and more briefly
as we finish,
a comfort for disciples
who fear
they will not have enough.
So a slight change
of direction,
a comfort for disciples
who fear
they will not have enough.
Verse 23,
he begins to speak
to disciples
and Jesus has
a different message
for them.
Notice that the message
to disciples
doesn't need to be
stop living for money.
Jesus assumes
that that won't be true
of them.
Jesus is assuming
that a Christian
is someone
who is living
for another treasure.
And in the case
of these disciples,
of course,
this was true
in a very evident way.
Because remember,
to follow Jesus
in the day
in which he lived
meant that you had
to leave everything
behind
in order to follow him.
you had to physically
give up your job.
You had to physically
move around
with the Lord Jesus.
And therefore,
it brought many
of these disciples
into a place
of desperation,
of need,
and of poverty.
And in such a scenario,
Jesus needs to
reassure his followers
that God will provide
for them
the basic things
of life.
Notice that these
are basic things,
verse 22.
It's things like
food and clothes.
It's the worry
of not having
enough to eat
or not having
enough to wear.
I really don't think
that God is that
interested
if we can't buy
that 17th pair
of fancy extra shoes
that we really want
or that we can't
get the sky package
that we wish
we could afford.
I don't think
that's really
what we're praying for
when we say
in the Lord's Prayer,
Lord,
give us our daily bread.
God's not necessarily
concerned with our wants,
but he is concerned
about our needs.
And there may be
some here
even today
and you find yourself
in difficult
personal circumstances.
You're living
on a tight budget.
Maybe you're
in a situation
of unemployment.
Maybe you don't know
how all the ends
are going to meet.
And the wisdom
of Jesus here
is utterly priceless.
It boils down
to three things.
Three things to do.
If you're a disciple,
and you tend
to be a worry wart.
Number one,
go for a walk
in the park.
I'm not joking.
That's what Jesus says,
more or less.
He says,
the worrier
is to consider
the ravens,
the flowers,
and the grass.
So wherever you can find
ravens,
flowers,
and grass,
I think ravens
might be more difficult,
but certainly you could
find some birds
and flowers
and grass.
If you go down
to the park,
go to the botanics,
God feeds
the ravens.
He feeds
the ravens.
It may be significant
that it's ravens.
Ravens were
unclean birds.
Unclean birds,
non-kosher birds.
Yet God
even feeds
the ravens.
I think that's
the point.
And he clothes
the flowers
with a greater
splendor than Solomon.
And he clothes
the grass,
which is here today
and gone tomorrow.
And the argument
is from lesser
to greater.
If God feeds
the birds,
then he's surely
going to feed you.
And if God
clothes the grass,
then he's surely
going to feed you,
one who is made
in his image.
So,
next time you're
feeling worried,
seriously,
go for a walk
in the park
and open your eyes
and consider
God's care
for his creation.
Secondly,
ask a deep question.
Are you ready
for a deep question
at half twelve
on a Sunday afternoon?
The question,
verse 25,
who of you
by worrying
can add a single
hour
to his life?
Can you add
an hour
to your life
through your worry?
Can you?
Worry is pointless.
Quite aside
from anything else,
worry achieves
nothing.
It doesn't even
add an hour
to your life.
If anything,
the medical
professionals
might tell us
it takes away
hours from our life.
So,
go for a walk
in the woods
and ask a deep
question.
And the third
thing,
third practical
thing is this.
Learn
the where
there
principle.
Learn the
where
there
principle.
Look at
verse 34.
Jesus says,
where your
treasure is,
there
your heart
will be also.
Do you see the
where and the
there?
Where
your treasure
is,
there
your heart
will be.
So,
let me ask you
this question.
Where is your
treasure this
morning?
This is the
rubber that
hits the road
bit.
Where is your
treasure?
If I ask you
that question,
is your answer,
my treasure,
is in my bank
account?
Or it's in my
investment fund?
Or it's in my
property?
If that's what
you consider to
be your real
treasure,
then what Jesus
is saying is your
heart's going to be
drawn towards that.
That means you're
going to desire that,
you're going to live
for that,
you're going to focus
your thoughts on
that.
That's going to
become your all
consuming concern
to protect and
cultivate the money
in your bank
account,
to protect and
cultivate your
investments.
That's going to be
the focus of your
heart.
if that's what
your treasure is.
But what if your
treasure is somewhere
else?
What if your
treasure and my
treasure is located
somewhere else?
What if it's
located in Christ?
What if it's
therefore located in
heaven itself where
Christ is at the
right hand of God?
If that's where my
treasure is,
then you see my
heart will be drawn
to him and drawn
to there.
How can I know if
my treasure is in
Christ?
What would be some
of the evidences?
Well, if my
treasure is in
Christ, then I
won't spend all of
my time worrying
about wealth.
I may sometimes
have concerns about
money.
We all have
concerns at times
about money.
But I won't be
plagued with worry
about wealth.
Second, if my
treasure is in
Christ, then I
won't be running
after wealth like
a pagan.
There's a
difference between
working hard and
earning a good
wage and running
after wealth like a
pagan.
And sometimes we
need to know the
difference between
those two things.
Thirdly, if my
treasure is in
Christ, I will not
be marked by greed,
by greediness, by
excess.
Are there things
in my life that I
could say, that's
excessive?
And here's a big
one.
Fourthly, if my
treasure is in
Christ, then my
life will be marked,
verse 33, by
generosity.
It talks about
giving stuff
away.
You see, the only
way you can give
stuff away is when
stuff doesn't really
matter to you.
That's when you're
free to give it
away because it's
not your real
treasure.
If my treasure is
Christ, then I
will invest in the
things of the
kingdom.
I won't build
bigger barns.
I will invest
what God has given
me in gospel work
and in gospel
ministry.
I will invest not
in building my own
barns, but in
building the church.
I will spend my
earthly resources in
order to store up
treasure in heaven.
May this be true of
all of us.
May God help us to
respond to his word
to us today.
Amen.