Luke 16

CHAPTER 16THEME: Parable of the unjust steward; Jesus answers the covetous Pharisees; Jesus speaks on divorce; Jesus recounts the incident of the rich man and Lazarus (poor man)

Luke 16:1

PARABLE OF THE UNJUST STEWARDThis parable has been greatly misunderstood, and one of the reasons is because it looks as though our Lord is commending a crook. This steward is an out-and-out crook. Some folk assume that anyone whom the Lord Jesus mentioned in a parable is a hero and an example of the noblest character. If this is your assumption, then prepare to make a change because you will have difficulty with this parable. This man is a scoundrel. When I was a pastor, I attempted one summer to run a series of sermons on rascals of revelation, scoundrels of Scripture, thieves of theology, bad men of the Bible, and crooks of Christianity. It was a long series because there were so many rogues! This steward is one of them. I have already called attention to the fact that Luke gives parables by contrast. He is the only Gospel writer that does this. Most parables are parables by comparison. In this parable the Lord uses as an example a man who followed the principles of the world. We are told in the Word of God that the world loves its own but hates those who belong to God. “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (Joh_15:18-19). A child of God does not belong to this world and does not live by the principles of this world. In Gal_1:3-4 Paul says, “…our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.” Again in Rom_12:2 Paul says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Finally, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world …” (1Jn_2:15). Now, in the world is what we call the “law of life” and the unjust steward is a man who operates by that law. The first commandment of the world is “self-preservation.” A shady business deal is winked at, questionable practices countenanced, and a clever crook is commended by the world. The law is on the side of the crook and the criminal many times. Every man, according to the world’s law, is considered innocent until he is proven guilty. The Word of God takes the opposite approach. God says that man is guilty until he is proven innocent. He says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom_3:23).

A man can never be innocent before God, but he certainly can become justified before Him. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus …” (Rom_8:1). When a man trusts Jesus Christ as his Savior, he is justified by faith. This is the only way a man can be justified. This is the story of a rich man and his unjust steward. A steward is a man who has charge of another man’s goods. Abraham had a steward, you remember, who had charge of all his possessions. It was Abraham’s steward who went on a trip to Haran to find a bride for Abraham’s son Isaac. David had stewards, mentioned in 1Ch_28:1. David’s stewards had charge over all of the king’s possessions, including his children. Paul tells us, “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (1Co_4:2). The steward in this parable would correspond to the president of a corporation. He had charge of this rich man’s goods. He was guilty of malfeasance in office and misappropriation of funds. He was like the bank president who absconds with bank funds. The unjust steward wasted the goods of his master.

Luke 16:2

The day of reckoning had come for this man. He had to give an account. Now since he had the signet ring of his master and was the paymaster, instead of drawing up a financial statement, he decided to use the law of the world which is self-preservation.

Luke 16:3

This man had soft hands and felt he could not be a common laborer. And he was ashamed to beg. It makes you smile to read this versethe man may have been ashamed to beg, but he was not ashamed to steal! Unfortunately, there are a lot of people like that today.

Luke 16:4

This man did not repent; he had no regret or remorse for his actions. This man was crookedcalled clever by the world’s standards. He had no training for other work, and his age was probably against him. He was too proud to beg, but he was not ashamed to be dishonest.

Luke 16:5

The steward was asking, “How much do you owe my master?” This man owed his master one hundred barrels of oil. “Well,” the steward said, “oil is about one dollar a barrel now. I will tell you what we will do. We will let you have it for fifty cents a barrel.” The man only had to pay half of what he owed.

Luke 16:7

I do not know why he did not give this fellow the same discount that he gave the other fellow, but this man had to pay eighty cents on the dollar. The unjust steward is just as big a crook at the end as he was at the beginning of his career. He is not being punished.

Luke 16:8

This is a shocking statement. Who made it? The lord of the steward, meaning his employer, the rich man. Apparently this man got rich using the same kind of principles that his unjust steward used. He tells him he has done wisely. In what way? According to the principles of the world. This is the world that hates Christ. It makes its own rules. The law of the world is “dog eat dog.” The worldly lord commended his worldly steward for his worldly wisdom according to his worldly dealings. The Lord Jesus said, “For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” That is, the children of this world, of this age, use their money more wisely than do the children of light.

Luke 16:9

The most shocking and startling statement of all concerns the relationship of the believer to the “mammon of unrighteousness.” What is the “mammon of unrighteousness?” It is riches, money. Money is not evil in itself; money is amoral. It is the love of money that is the root of all evil. For believers money is to be spiritual. Our Lord said that we should lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. We should be wise in the way we use our money. Then when we “fail” or come to the end of life, we will be welcomed into heaven.

Luke 16:10

We are stewards of that which is material. We own nothing as believers. We are responsible to God for how we use His goods. He says that the men of this world are wiser than the children of light in their stewardship. For years I was pastor of a church in downtown Los Angeles which was near the financial district. Through the years I watched many of the men go into a broker’s office and watch the fluctuation of the stock market.

They would sit down in the morning and figure out what they were going to do. They would not invest in any stock unless they thought it was going to go up in value, or they would play the market. A Christian man once told me that he had made his money by playing the stock market. For this reason he would not accept an office in the churchI do not know how he reconciled to himself the fact that he was a church member. He was clever at making money. How many Christians today are smart in the use of the mammon of unrighteousnessmoney? Do they use it to gather spiritual wealth? God will hold you responsible for the misuse of the material wealth He gives you. I personally know of a program that is run just for the self-interest of one individual. In another organization ninety percent of what is given to that program supports a tremendous overhead that keeps men driving Cadillac automobiles. That means you would have to give one hundred dollars to get ten dollars to the poor folk they are telling you about.

There is something wrong with the way Christians give their money. This would not happen if Christians were as smart as the men of the world. How smart are you, Christian friend, in money matters? Are you using your money to see that the Word of God reaches those who need it? In the parable of the unjust steward the Lord Jesus is saying, “Do you think God is going to trust you with heavenly riches if you are not using properly that which He has given you on earth?” Money is a spiritual matter. You are responsible not only for giving it, but for investing it where it will yield the highest dividends in folk reached for Christ.

Luke 16:13

What are you doing with your money? Are you making money? If you are, what are you doing with it? This is a pertinent question. Are you using it for the things of the world? If you are, you are serving mammon; that is your master. Are you serving God or mammon? You cannot serve them both.

Luke 16:14

JESUS ANSWERS THE COVETOUS PHARISEESThe Pharisees heard Jesus and began to feel convicted. God knew the hearts of the Pharisees. God knows your heart. God knows my heart. We can put up a front with each other but not with God. We cannot measure up to God’s standard.

Luke 16:18

JESUS SPEAKS ON DIVORCEIf this were the only verse of Scripture on the subject of divorce, there would be no divorce for a Christian. This verse should be compared with Matthew 19 and 1 Corinthians 7. All of Scripture must be considered on a certain subject to ascertain its truth. Our Lord spoke on this subject, to these men who were under the Law, because they were making light of the Law of God.

Luke 16:19

JESUS RECOUNTS THE INCIDENT OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS (POOR MAN)Now we come to another great parable that only Luke presents. I do not believe this is a fictitious story. I believe He drew this story from real life just as He did His other parables. Jesus used illustrations that were familiar to His hearers. They knew exactly what He was talking about. He uses the name of one of the individuals involved in this parable; the Lord would not have given the name of someone who did not exist. This is the story of a rich man who lived and died without God. It moves into a realm that we know nothing about. In this parable the Lord passes from this world to the next without making any break at all. Although we cannot penetrate the curtain between this life and the next life, our Lord speaks of the next world as naturally as He speaks of this life. When man is left to his own imagination, he seeks out many inventions and out of his wildest dreams he makes unlimited speculations. When man uses his imagination, he gets into trouble. In this parable we learn what the Word of God says. There were only four men who ever spoke with authority concerning the other side of death: the Lord Jesus; Lazarus; John, who was given the Revelation; and Paul, who was “…caught up to the third heaven” (2Co_12:2).

Luke 16:20

Here are two men at the opposite ends of the social and financial ladderand, I suppose, every other ladder. One man represents the top echelon in riches, and the other man represents the lowest extreme of poverty. No two men could be farther apart in every way. This poor man was dependent upon the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. He never was invited to sit at the rich man’s table; he had to be kept in a menial place. The dogs came and licked his sores.

In a few words our Lord pictures the depths of the terrible degradation and despair into which this man had fallen. I am sure had you lived in that town you might have gotten the impression that poor Lazarus, dressed in rags, did not have much in the way of any spiritual discernment or spiritual riches. I am sure all of us would have written him off as a hopeless case. On the other hand, I am sure that the rich man had several buildings named after himperhaps a church, a school, or a mission enterprise. I am sure he had a wonderful name in the town in which these two men lived. However, all that the people in the town could see were the outward appearances of the rich man and the beggar whose sores were licked by dogs.

This is a picture of abject poverty and extreme riches. Two men could not have been farther apart.

Luke 16:22

Our Lord comes right to the door of death and passes through it as if it were nothing unusual. When the beggar died, there was no funeral. They just took his body out and threw it into the Valley of Gehenna where refuse was thrown and burned; this is the place where they threw the bodies of the poor in that day. The minute the beggar stepped through the doorway of death, angels became his pall-bearers and he was carried by them into Abraham’s Bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. He had a big funeral, and the preacher pushed him all the way to the top spot in heaven. The only trouble is that the preacher got his directions mixed up; the rich man went the other way.

Luke 16:23

Notice two things here: The lost go to a place of conscious torment. Also, people know each other after death. We do not lose our identities. The word hell is in the Greek hades, meaning “the unseen world.” Actually, hell, as we think of it, is a place that has not yet been opened up for business; we don’t read of it until we get to Rev_20:10, where it tells us that hell’s first occupants will be the Antichrist and the false prophet. When they died, Lazarus and the rich man went to the unseen world, the place of the departed dead. Death is separation; it never means extinction. Adam, in the day that he ate of the forbidden fruit, died. Physically he did not die until about nine hundred years later, but the day that he ate of the fruit he was separated from God. Jesus spoke of it when He said, “…I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die …” (Joh_11:25-26). Man is separated from God by sin. People are dead while they live. Paul told the Ephesians, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph_2:1). Certain spots in a big city are really alive and jumping at night. If you want to see a lot of zombies and dead people, look in on one of these nightclubs. That is where you will find them. They are beating the drums, blaring out the music, getting the beat, drinking all they can, and getting high on drugs because they are dead and want to live. There is a second death, which is spiritual death, and it means eternal separation from God. At physical death the body becomes inert and lifeless because the person’s spirit has moved out. The body is put into the grave, and the elements return to the dust: “…for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen_3:19). Therefore, death means separation. It will help us understand this parable if we realize that Sheol or hades (translated hell in the New Testament) is divided into two compartments: paradise (which is called Abraham’s Bosom in this parable) and the place of torment. Paradise was emptied when Christ took with Him at His ascension the Old Testament believers (see Eph_4:8-10). The place of torment will deliver up the lost for judgment at the Great White Throne (see Rev_20:11-15). All who stand at this judgment are lost, and they will be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death. Now when the rich man died, his spirit went to the place of torment, the compartment where the lost go. The beggar went to the compartment called paradise or Abraham’s Bosom. Note that our Lord is not saying that the rich man went to the place of torment because he was rich and that the poor man went to Abraham’s Bosom because he was poor. Going through the doorway of death certainly changed their status, but it was due to what was in the hearts of these two men. This is what our Lord has been saying through this entire sectionman cannot judge by the outward appearance. There are some other things revealed in this story that we would not know if our Lord had not revealed them.

Luke 16:24

The rich man becomes the beggar, while the beggar is now the rich man.

Luke 16:25

The bodies of believers today, since the resurrection of Jesus Christ, go into the grave and return to dust, but their spirits go to be with Christ. “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2Co_5:8). The lost today still go to the place of torment in hades. Eph_4:8-10 gives us the following picture, “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)” In other words, when our Lord descended into hades after His crucifixion on the cross, He entered the paradise section, emptied it, and took everyone into God’s presence. No one occupies the paradise section of hades today. The only part of hades still occupied is the place of torment where unbelievers go when they die. The day is coming when hades will be cast into the lake of fire and men will no longer go there at all (see Rev_20:14). The body is merely the physical house in which we live. At death we move out of our old homes. You can do anything you want to with the old house after it is deserted, but the important thing is what happens to the spirit after it has left the body. Where is it going? Heaven is a place, friend, and the moment you die you will either go there to be with Christ, or you will go to the place of torment where you will ultimately be judged and then cast into the lake of fire. The point is that God never intended the latter as an end for anyone of the human family. The lake of fire was made for the Devil and his angels (see Mat_25:41). You choose your final destination. “There is a great gulf fixed:” our Lord made that clear. You must make the decision in this life where you will go after your death. You do not get a second chance after death.

Luke 16:27

Notice his concern for his living brothers. He wanted them to repent, change their minds before it was too late. Friend, if the lost could come back, they would preach the gospel to us.

Luke 16:28

Many people believe that multitudes would repent if someone returned from the dead to tell them what it was like. Well, Someone has come back from the dead. His name is Jesus Christ. They did not believe Him any more than they believed Moses and the prophets. Friend, do not delay in making your choice. There will be no opportunity after death.