In his sermon on the Parable of the Unrighteous Steward from Luke 16, Robert Bosley addresses common questions and interpretations surrounding one of the Bible's most challenging parables. He emphasizes that parables often teach a single overarching principle, and for this particular parable, that principle is that Christians should not conduct their business or manage their wealth like unbelievers. The unjust steward is praised by his master for his shrewdness, not his dishonesty, highlighting the worldly wisdom that often conflicts with Christian ethics. Bosley identifies two key applications from the parable: Christian charity and faithfulness. He urges believers to use their wealth to help others and to be faithful stewards of God's gifts, emphasizing that wealth should be a tool for God's glory rather than a master to be served. Bosley concludes by reminding the congregation of the importance of generosity, faithfulness, and living in light of God's commands.

Amen. And what good promises he has given us. Open up your copy of the scriptures to the Gospel According to Luke chapter 16. Gospel According to St. Luke chapter 16 and we are continuing with the series on the parables that our Lord Jesus taught during his earthly ministry.

And this parable, I've had a couple people ask me about it even back when I first started the series on the parables. What do you make of this parable, the parable of the unjust steward? And I've honestly kind of been avoiding it for a couple of months. Ideally, this would have followed when, because you look back at chapter 15, there's a couple parables there. And this seems to all be in the same discourse, but I kind of avoided it for a little bit because I wanted to study a little bit more.

Hopefully that's reflected this afternoon, we'll see. Because this is generally one of the more difficult parables. One of the more difficult parables to understand, to interpret, and to apply. There's a lot of things that aren't exactly clear. There's a lot of confusion about it, but I hope that we'll be able to clear up at least some of that this afternoon.

So let's read it and pray and then we will get into it. So, Luke chapter 16 beginning in verse 1 and I'll read through verse 13. He also said to his disciples, there was a certain rich man who had a steward and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.

Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig. I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.

So he called every one of his master's debtors to him and said to the first, how much do you owe my master? And he said, 100 measures of oil. So he said to him, take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50. Then he said to another, how much do you owe? So he said, 100 measures of wheat.

And he said to him, take your bill and write 80. So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much, and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches and if you have not been faithful in what is another man's who will give you what is your own no servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Let's pray. Our Father, we come before you this afternoon so thankful that we can be together today on this Lord's Day and sit under the instruction of your word. I pray Lord that you would help me to speak as I ought to speak and give open hearts and minds to receive instruction from your word.

Help us Lord to understand these things as we consider such a practical matter of how to use our money. God, may we learn from these words and live in light of what you've commanded. And may we glorify you in all things as we serve you in Jesus' name, amen. Now, before we get into the parable, I've reminded almost every time we've done one of these, but I want to remind you again one of the essential principles of interpreting the parables. Not everything in a parable corresponds to reality.

The parables are stories often used to illustrate, sometimes intended actually to even hide the truth. We've seen that in other places. But the parables are stories told by the Lord to teach one basic point most of the time. I think we can argue that certain parables have a more full explanation where you can learn more from each of the elements, but a parable in its core is teaching a single truth, an overarching principle present in the story that we are to learn from on how to live as members of the kingdom of God on earth. And this idea is especially true here.

This is, in my opinion, probably the most difficult parable to really interpret and apply. There's a lot that's difficult to understand here. And in my preparations, one commentary I was looking at listed something like 13 different interpretations that people have given for this parable throughout church history. And it's not just a matter of a slight nuance. Some of them are widely different from one another.

Some people interpret the rich man as God, some interpret the rich man as the devil. There's all sorts of strange things in between. And I think part of that is because we want to try and say, well, what does every little part mean? We want every person to be a representation of something else. We want it to be an allegory more than just accepting that it's a lesson on a single theme.

And so today I want to go for the main point of this parable. I don't know that I'm going to answer everyone's questions. I'm not saying that I'm going to resolve the dispute because there's been a lot of questions about this parable. But I think we can get a good handle on what the Lord is trying to teach us today through this parable. Now this parable begins with a steward who is called before his master to basically get fired.

He's done a poor job and he is now going to be removed from being the steward. He's later called the unjust steward, later in the in the parable, but here at the beginning he is simply called wasteful. It says that an accusation is brought to him, him the rich man, that this man, the steward, was wasting his goods. This is the same word used in the previous chapter to describe the prodigal sons' wasteful spending. And I think that what we have here is a steward is not really a very good steward.

He's not necessarily done anything unjust, he's just not done a good job of watching over his master's property because that's what a steward is. A steward is intended to care for a master's goods, his property, his money, things like that, so that the rich man is able to do his own thing and not worry about it. But this is a steward that's not done a very good job. He has wasted his master's property, not maintained it, not increased it. And because he's been a wasteful, he's squandered his master's possessions, he is now called to give an account.

The rich man calls him and says, what is this that I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship for you can no longer be my steward. And the man realizing that his work is coming to an end, he considers and tries to think of, what can I do when I no longer have this job? And his goal is that people will welcome me into their homes, he says. Now I don't think what he means by that is that he intends to just be a freeloader and sleep on someone's couch the rest of his life.

Rather he's seeking to be a steward in another house. A steward like this would have been a house servant. He would have lived on the property that he's managing. And so he's hoping that even though he's getting fired from this position, he can get a similar gig somewhere else at another estate. And he recognized that really his only talent is being a mid-level manager.

He's not strong enough to farm or build. It says he's not strong enough to dig. Manual labor's not in his future. He can't do it. And he's too ashamed to beg.

And so he wants to come up with a plan that will allow him to easily get a position in another estate. And he comes up with this plan that he's going to mark down the debts that his current master is owed. And we're only given two. There's probably many more in reality. If this was a retelling of a real event, there would be many debtors probably, but we're only told the two because you only need the two to kind of get the gist of what this man's plan is.

So he goes to the first debtor and he asks him, how much do you owe? A hundred measures of oil, a measure, literally here a bath of oil. It's probably, there's some debate on exactly what that is, but it's probably eight to nine gallons, a single bath. So a hundred of these, so upwards of 900 gallons of olive oil. Now this would be the yield of a very large orchard, possibly upwards of even 400 plus trees.

So this would be a vast sum of money. And he tells him to mark it down to 50, cut it in half. He goes to a second one and he says that he owes 100 measures of wheat. Here a measure is a course, which is something like 10 to 12 bushels. So again, a very large sum, somewhere around 1, 000 to 1, 200 bushels of wheat.

The produce of a massive farm over well over a hundred acres and he tells him to mark it down to 80. Now each bill is reduced by a substantial amount. Most commentators estimate that each reduction amounts to about 500 denarii. If you remember, a denarius was about a day's pay for an average laborer. So each bill he's reducing by about 16 months of wages.

He's taking a lot off of these men's debts. And why is he doing this? He's doing this so that when he's out of work, these men that he's now helped not have to pay any, not have to pay this amount, that they'll suddenly look at their books and say, oh, I've got an extra year and a half or so of money laying around, I'll bring this guy on since he helped me in the past. That's his his plan. He wants to give these guys a Discount so that they can turn around and scratch his back later when he's unemployed Now The steward tells the debtors to take their bills, implying he's probably got them in hand and he's talking with them face to face.

Take your bill and you write down the new amount. Now whether it's a new bill or they erase the old and put new numbers, it doesn't really matter. What does matter is the craftiness of this steward. He doesn't just go in his office and take the bills out and write them out himself. He finds the debtors and has them commit the fraud.

And I think he does this for two reasons. Again, this story revolves around his craftiness, his shrewdness. And I think he has two objectives in making the debtors write the reduced amounts themselves. One, he makes them complicit in the act. They're now also guilty of defrauding the rich man.

And two, he's also now, hopefully he thinks, going to be able to more easily hide his deception because it's in the hand of the person who owes the debt, which would have been the one who would have written the contract in the first century. So hopefully he thinks I'll be able to get away with it. That's his plan. He's doing this so he can get away with it and ingratiate himself with these other rich men so that he can benefit later on. Fortunately, it doesn't really work out for him.

The master somehow finds out. Now the steward is not exposed, sorry, but now the master finds out and he is now, the steward is now exposed not only as a wasteful steward, an incompetent steward, but also unrighteous and unjust. And we expect the response of the rich man to be one of anger. That he's going to call and have this man put in prison, throw him into the debtor's prison or maybe even have him executed. It's a lot of money.

But what happens? Verse 8, the master commended or praised the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. Now, we're not expecting this response. It's not the response that any of us would give to being cheated out of something like three years of pay minimum. For some reason, this rich man praises the unjust steward.

Now why? One possibility that's been proposed is that the amount that was discounted was the steward's own commission, whether or not it was a legitimate or who knows, perhaps it was a bribe, and that he was removing that so that he wouldn't get a cut, but his master would still retain the original price. Possible, I'm not persuaded, because he is called unjust for what he does. It doesn't seem like he's wiping out just his cut. It seems like what he's doing is ultimately stealing from his boss.

So then why is he commended? Some commentators will make the observation that his Shrewdness is commended, not the theft per se. And it's true, he does commend him because he had dealt shrewdly, but I don't think you can so neatly separate the two things here. How is he shrewd in his unrighteousness? How is he being unjust by dealing shrewdly?

So I don't think we can separate the two. I have two thoughts in mind. I'm not sure which one is gonna be, Which one is more satisfying for why the rich man commends him? So I'm going to give you both and you tell me what you think maybe later on. Consider this.

In this last week in our country, we have seen revealed an amount of waste and fraud in our federal government on a scale almost impossible to imagine. It's more blatant, more selfish, more dishonest than I think most people even thought might be going on. And it comes to a point where you almost have to sit back and admire it in a way. It's so flagrant, it's so over the top, you're almost impressed that they're that dishonest. Maybe that's what's going on here.

The stewards fraud is ultimately so blatant and so shameless that the master almost has to admire him for the gall. Maybe that's what it is. Even though he's suffering the loss of about three years of wages, maybe he's just like, I have to say, well done in some sense, I guess. Maybe that's what's going on here. Or perhaps the reversal of expectation is kind of the point.

Maybe Jesus is using kind of the absurdity of the rich man's response to show the foolishness of worldly thinking. Maybe his whole point is that worldly men and the way they handle their wealth is absurd. And I do think that might be what verse 8 is getting at when you read the last half of the verse. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. The steward is praised for acting dishonestly, yet shrewdly, because dishonesty and craftiness, dishonesty and shrewdness is how worldly, wealthy people behave.

It's what they do. And other wicked men who do the same things can look at it and even admire it in a sense. And the Lord says here that the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation or dealing with their own kind. Unbelievers with unbelievers are more shrewd than the sons of light when they deal with the world. And I think what his point is that those who are given over to the corruption of this present evil age, they pretty much are free to do what they want to do.

They're able to deal with one another in corrupt ways. God's law has no purchase on their conscience. They have no desire to live in accordance with God's commands and so in a sense they are more shrewd because they do not have the commands of God bearing on and restricting their behavior and their conscience. The Christian is not shrewd by this worldly standard because God's law won't allow us to be. God's law instead commands the Christian to live and conduct business in a different way.

We cannot live like pagans in our business. And I believe that this, regardless of how we interpret all the details, how we break down all the elements, I believe that this is the essential point of the parable. That Christians do not live, do not work, they do not conduct their business, and they do not handle their wealth in the same way as unbelievers. I believe that is the fundamental point of this parable. Regardless of how you take the master's commendation of the unjust steward, and note the key point here, it's the rich man in the story praising the unjust steward.

It's not Jesus praising the unjust steward. It's an important distinction to make. Regardless of how you take his commendation, his praise of the unjust steward, this is the ultimate conclusion. Christians do not use their worldly prosperity in the same way that an unbeliever does. At least they should not.

And thankfully the Lord gives us what I believe are two direct applications of this overarching principle here in the next couple of verses. First, Christian charity, and then second, Christian faithfulness. So in verse nine, Christian charity, I believe, is exemplified in verse nine. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. The steward found the solution to his dilemma, he thought, but it cost him his morals.

He rejected God's ethical standards in order to ensure his earthly comfort. But the saints of God must live in the opposite way. We must embrace God's commands in order to secure eternal joy. And One of God's most basic commands in regard to wealth and money is generosity. Old Testament, New Testament, doesn't matter.

God always expects his people to be generous and to give charitably to those who are in need. Jesus here in this verse encourages, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon that when you fail they may receive you into an everlasting home. This is the opposite of what the steward did. He used the unrighteous mammon, money, to make short-lived friends that may or may not welcome him into temporary homes. But Christ commands his followers to live a better way.

We are to make friends with using worldly wealth or unrighteous mammon. I think unrighteous here is not an attribute that's intrinsic to money, but more a descriptor of how it's often used in this world. Money itself is not wrong, but it is often used for wrong ends. And so we are to make friends with worldly wealth. And I think that we ought to take this as a figure of speech for almsgiving, for charity.

We're to make friends by the wealth that God allows us to have in this world through charity, through charitable giving, generosity. Now the point of charity is twofold. First is intended to alleviate physical suffering. This is very plain. James is particularly clear on this in James chapter 2, 15 to 16.

James says, if a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warm and filled, but you do not give him the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? It's a rhetorical question. The answer is basically nothing. This is good and important for us to remember. Charity does have a physical purpose.

We are to care for the body. We are not only concerned about the spiritual but also the physical, including the physical needs of those around us. The body matters and so we care for the body, the physical nature. But secondarily, charity is a means of opening doors for the gospel. How many times have people been willing to hear the truth about their sin and their need of a Savior because someone had proved that they were concerned with their physical well-being as well.

Charities, ministries, hospitals, orphanages, missions, all of these different works undergone by Christians in the world recognize this principle. For instance, our church supports the Durham Rescue Mission and many people have been saved through their ministry and largely because they start with meeting physical needs of those who are in need. And this second aspect of charity I believe is what is meant by that they may receive you into an everlasting home. Christian charity does have a goal of not just meeting physical needs but of ultimately trying to meet the greatest need, the spiritual need, the need that that sinner has to have their sins forgiven. Christian Charity has this goal, to be a way of opening the door to the gospel so that those who receive your money might also receive Christ and that they would spend eternity with you and with God in an everlasting home.

Now it says that when you fail they may receive you. It's an interesting phrase. If you have an ESV or another version, you may read something like when it fails or when they fail instead. Textual point aside, both are true. One day you will fail, you will die.

The word fail means is cease. When you cease they may welcome you into eternal homes or when it fails, when your wealth fails, they may welcome you into eternal homes. One way or another both are going to happen. You will fail and your wealth will fail. Either you will run out in this life or when you die your money will be of no more use to you.

And so what should our goal be? To build a temporary treasury here on earth, or to store up treasure in heaven. That's the point. Use the money that God has given you to bring sinners to Christ so that you may have an eternal home with them. So in what practical ways are we called to be generous with our money?

Well, first, and I believe most importantly, by giving to the local church. As a general rule, Christians should give to support the work of their own local church in which they are members. Now this is not exactly the same as the tithe. The tithe, as we see it in the Old Testament, was an element of old covenant worship, but the principle remains. The principle of giving, like all the general equity of the law of God, endures forever.

Christians should give to support their church. And our church in particular states in the church covenant that you affirm when you become a member, quote, we will contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the gospel through all nations. So I believe that should be our first avenue for our generosity, support of your local church, support of this church if you are a member here, to advance the gospel, to support the poor, and to provide for the needs of this church. Second, by giving beyond the local church. This can be to other charities, ministries, missions.

This is a good thing to give to if you're able, provided you do your due diligence and ensure that they are using that money in a godly way. Thirdly, by being generous with brothers and sisters in need. I know I and my family and I have personally benefited tremendously and been blessed by brothers and sisters in this church when we have been in need. This is one of the great results of having a biblically ordered church where members see one another as truly family and are happy to help one another. So maybe someone needs to borrow a car for an afternoon or maybe someone needs help making a payment.

Maybe a mother has given birth and their family needs some meals for a while. Consider one another. Be generous with your time and your money and your resources in order to be a blessing to one another as the family of God. And fourth, by being generous with unbelievers. There may be circumstances that arise where you can Personally be a blessing to even someone outside of the church with your money or your finances or your time Now show wisdom in this but as much as possible take these opportunities to be a means of showing the love of Christ, and hopefully be an avenue by which God's grace can come and make that unbeliever a friend who will have eternal homes with you.

Now the second overall application, Christian faithfulness in verses 10 through 13. This is really the ultimate principle at work here. That the first application of charity is really, in a sense, a subset of faithfulness. Because what is faithfulness? We recognize that ultimately we are stewards.

Everything we have has been given to us. And we are called to use it well. One way that God instructs his people to do it is through giving. So we saw that in charity, but just a general idea of faithfulness with the wealth that God has given you. And we are told a basic principle in these verses, a phrase a couple of different ways, but essentially repeating the same point.

If you can trust someone in a little thing, you can probably trust them in something greater. If you can't trust them in something little, you can't trust them in anything great. And Jesus uses this to refer to Christian faithfulness. If we are unfaithful with worldly wealth, what reward will we have? We'll have nothing.

We are to be faithful stewards. We are to live and use this money, see it as something entrusted to us temporarily by God to be used for his glory and for his kingdom because, in verse 13, we have a new master. God rules us, not money. So consider, look in verse 10, he says, he who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much. In God's perspective, whatever wealth you have, whether you're barely scraping by or you can give Elon Musk a run for his money, It is all very little in God's sight.

It is least. And as a Christian, it's your God-given responsibility to use that money well. It's not simply yours to do with as you please. God has given it to you in order to meet your physical needs and even meet your wants in many cases. God intends for his people to enjoy the world he's made.

He's made an amazing world. Christians should be the ones enjoying it most in a lawful way. It's not bad to enjoy things. But the question is, are you using this wealth that God has given you faithfully? Now the much in verse 10, the true riches in verse 11 and the your own riches in verse 12, in my opinion are heavenly rewards.

These are the things given to those who are faithful in this world with the little riches, the unrighteous wealth, and the wealth that is another's. And that wealth is another's, again, because it's ultimately given to you by God. If you're unfaithful with worldly wealth, God will not give you heavenly riches. You will not have a reward if you abuse what God gives you in this life. Now this can be simply a loss of rewards as we see this idea in 1 Corinthians 3 where empty and useless works are burned yet the person is saved.

Or it may be that on that last day, all of heaven is barred to you, as your faithlessness in worldly wealth reveals that you have a heart that loves money, not God. So I want us to understand what we do matters, what we do every day matters. What you do with your money matters. Your Christian life is not limited to our time right now. We are to be Christians at all times, not simply on Sundays.

Because ultimately you can have only one master. Verse 13, no servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else He will be loyal to the one and despise the other you cannot Serve God and Mammon PT Barnum is quoted as saying money is a terrible master but an excellent servant. Others have phrased it that it's a good tool but an awful God. Money is given to be a tool in the hand of the servants of God. It is not to become your God.

Be careful how you use it. It is abhorrent for a Christian to be consumed with greed. It causes the name of God to be blasphemed and the Lord to be mocked. Now this isn't to say that money itself is the problem. God has often blessed his people with tremendous riches.

Give you one example, consider Solomon. There's always question about exactly what their measurements meant for us today, but if we take the common exchange rate, so to speak, of ancient Israel to modern day times, King Solomon was probably the wealthiest man in history. He probably had a net worth of somewhere between two and three trillion dollars, five times what Elon Musk has. God gave him tremendous wealth. God's not opposed to giving his people wealth as the love of money, not money itself as a root of all kinds of evil.

Remember what Peter said about the false teachers, that by covetousness they exploit you with deceptive words, that they follow the way of Balaam, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. Where is your heart? What is your God? Is it truly the God who made you and made the world or is it your bank account? What occupies your thoughts?

What motivates how you live and what you spend your wealth on. Consider the qualifications for elders and deacons. First Timothy 3, Titus 1, 1 Peter 5, every time the qualifications are listed it specifically says that this man cannot be a lover of money. The qualifications of an elder are really the goal of every Christian. It's what a mature Christian man looks like.

So this doesn't just apply to elders. It's the same for the rest of the flock. Christian fellowship, edification, sanctification, all these can be stunted and destroyed by greed. How many ministries have been wiped out because of greed? Now we are in this church a relatively well-off church.

As a whole, we are a fairly prosperous group of people. So let's rejoice in what God has done and what God has given us and use it well for him. Be faithful in the things that God has given you and never ever let there be a hint of greed or covetousness among us. God forbid that we should be unjust stewards with what he has entrusted us. Let us be faithful.

Let us not rebel against God and instead serve mammon. Let's pray. Our Father, we come before you and we thank you, God, for your word. And we pray, Lord, that you would help us to live in light of this. God, may we never ever turn from you simply to build our own kingdoms here in this world.

God forgive us for any hearts of greed or discontent with what you have given us. Help us Lord to deal faithfully with this stewardship you have given us. May we use it well for your glory and for your kingdom and may we serve you And may we make good use of the prosperity you've given us to be agents for your kingdom, to be working to build your kingdom and to share your glory and to make you known not to build our own reputation, our own kingdoms. God keep us from this great and awful sin of greed. Help us Lord to be generous and kind and ready to share with one another and with those who are in need.

May you receive all the glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.