Okay, again a good morning to all of you. I’m actually fascinated by the graphic, looking at the man staring. I’m just wondering what he is staring at, bigger building or the smaller building. Alright before we go into the Word of God, I’d like again to express my joy in meeting with you. Now those who are here in the hall, you are here on duty. Now some of you might be wondering what duties alright. Some of you are handling the media, the music, the leading in the worship, and the preaching. But there are still a few of you here alright. And so let me tell you that your duty is to sing alright- to sing with us to praise the Lord.

I’m also happy to note that our sister May is here with Abel. And therefore, there is one that sneaked in alright together with May alright, and he or she too is on duty alright accompanying the parents. Alright, we are going to look at another parable this morning and that is recorded by Luke in his gospel. And so let us now turn to our sermon text, the Gospel of Luke, and chapter 12. The Gospel of Luke and chapter 12. So let me again read our text first. So beginning in verse 13 alright- beginning in verse 13 of Luke chapter 12.

Now verse 13: “Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But Jesus said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’

So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”” But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ “So (is) he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.””. Now, let us bow in prayer.

“Our dear Father in heaven, we thank You for Your Word, and we desire to know Your truth. And therefore, we come now before You and we plead and pray for understanding that You might teach us and help us grasp the message, the lesson that You want us to learn this morning. For we pray all these in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Alright, the parable is actually from verse 16 through verse 21, and I guess that most of you might be familiar with this parable that we are looking at this morning. But I just wonder if many of you actually know the reason why Jesus told this parable alright. So let us begin with the why, the reason Jesus told this story. So why did Jesus tell this story? Now the reason, we can see in verse 13 alright. And here in verse 13, we are told that one from the crowd (or in the ESV says: “someone in the crowd”) said to Jesus, and he called Him: Rabbi, now tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

Now when Jesus heard that, He was kind of troubled. You know He was kind of disturbed by that alright. And why? Now, why was Jesus kind of troubled when this man asked Him for a favour to you know intervene in the inheritance dispute? Now the reason is this, that at the very beginning of this chapter alright- at the beginning of this chapter, now that is the context that we are told in verse 1 that “in the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people”. How many people we do not know, but it was a huge crowd. The ESV actually translated as thousands because there were probably thousands, as which was very common when our Lord Jesus was on earth that thousands actually you know flocked to Him and to hear Him.

They somehow realised that there’s something interesting you know about Jesus and about His message. And so they flocked to Him. And so that is the scene here, the multitude. The thousands of people were gathered together. And so they trembled upon one another, and Jesus began to speak to them alright begin to teach them. And so these people were listening to Jesus. And what was Jesus saying to them? What was Jesus saying to these people? What was His message? In fact, throughout this whole chapter (chapter 12); in fact, onto chapter 13 and so on, now if you are using a red-letter Bible, now you would see that almost the whole chapter is in red. The red-letter Bible alright using red ink to indicate that these are the actual words of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So this is the Lord preaching His sermon to this huge crowd of people gathered before Him, and He has something very important to say to them. What is He trying to say to them? Here is a solemn sermon. A solemn sermon because Jesus tells them in verse 4. He says: “I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.”. Then in verse 5, He tells them that what you should really fear is this: “But I will show you (He says) whom you should really fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!”.

And that is what Jesus is trying to tell these thousands of people gathered before Him that there are many things we fear in this world. We are in the pandemic. We are living in fear. We are scared of this and scared of that. But Jesus said that the One whom you should fear the most is not the people of the world. It’s not the circumstances of life. It’s not anything in this world. But the One that you should fear the most is God. It’s God because you’re going to face Him one day. Now you may not believe in that.

You may not think that you would meet Him, but the Bible tells us that it’s a fact that you will live your life on earth and one day you will stand before God in judgement, and you will have to give an account of everything that you do on earth. And so Jesus was kind of drumming home that message to them. And verse 8: “And also (He said) I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men, him also will be denied before the angels of God.”.

In other words, one day, now this will be the truth that those who reject Me, those who deny Me, those who do not confess Me, I will also not confess them. I will not know them. I will also reject them before God. Now you see, Jesus says it is therefore important that you get right with God, that you understand that Jesus that He is the Son of God that you had to be made right with Him. And then in verse 29. Verse 29, remember the whole chapter is the sermon of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And Jesus says and you know what? That you people who live on earth, this whole multitude of people, thousands of you. You people who live on earth, you’re always concerned about the things of this world. You’re always concerned about the things of this life. You don’t think about God. You don’t think about meeting Him. Let Me tell you. Let Me tell you, He says in verse 29: “And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind.”. He said people of the world are always concerned about the things of this world. Verse 30: “For all these things the nations, the people of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things.”.

Apparently, Jesus was directing this message to His disciples, to the church, to the people of God that of all the people in the world we must understand our priorities. Yes, the people in the world live that way. They fear the things of this world. They’re concerned about the things of this world, but we ought to be different. Are you any different from your non-Christian friends? He says in verse 31 our priority should be this, to “seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you”. Why should we be concerned with these weightier things of life? Why should we be concerned about the future, about meeting God? Well, He tells us.

Verse 37: “Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you, he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them.”. Because Jesus is coming again. Because He is coming again. And those who are found faithful will enjoy the fellowship with God. And therefore He says in verse 40: “Therefore (I say to you), be ready, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour you do not expect.”. He is coming soon, and you do not know when. It could be any time, but be ready. That is how we ought to live our life. We must have a sense of priority, right biblical priority in life, living in light of eternity, live in light of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore get right with Him.

And so He ends that way in verse 58: “When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into the prison.”. In other words, before you are brought to the judge, get right. Sort out your life. Sort out your life. Verse 59: “I tell you, you shall not depart from there till you have paid (every last penny or) every last mite.”. Get right. Sort out your life. Get right with God before you reach the point where you’ll be judged by God and be thrown into hell forever. It was a solemn message that the Lord is speaking to.

He sees the multitude, His heart goes out to them. He sees that they are lost. He sees that they are distracted by the many concerns and the things of the world. He wants them to have right focus. He wants them to understand what really matters in life. Now that is what is happening here in this chapter. And now do you not see what a surprising thing is verse 13? And so when we come to verse 13, now there is a black ink here alright where Luke now tells us and gives us a certain information here. So what is verse 13?

Now verse 13, Luke tells us while the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking to the crowd, trying to drive home to them in earnest this important message that they should be serious about the weightier things of life, and here is this man from the crowd. One from the crowd as it were stood up, and he said to Jesus: “(Rabbi or) Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”. Now suddenly, Jesus was being interrupted in the midst of His preaching by this man. Now obviously, this man was not paying attention. Sadly like many people, when they’re listening to the Word of God, they’re not paying attention. This man was not listening. He didn’t get it while Jesus was driving home this message.

Instead, he was thinking about something else. While the Lord Jesus Christ was preaching, his mind was wandering. His mind was still on the concern of this world, the concern of this life. And what was he thinking about? What was he thinking about? Money, possession, material things, inheritance. That is what is this man is thinking about, and that is what a lot of people are thinking about. Day in, day out, from morning to night, every day of the week, including Sunday. Including Sunday, including while in the midst of the big crowd listening to the Lord Jesus Christ, his mind is still thinking about investment. His mind is thinking about that business deal. His mind is thinking about how to get rich, how to have more money. That is the context here. That is what we see here in the midst of the Lord Jesus Christ preaching.

And so Jesus hearing him, responded to him. Now therefore the parable, you say why did Jesus tell this parable? This parable is a response to this man in the midst of thousands of people listening to the solemn message by the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s a response to this man’s concern, this man’s preoccupation. This man you know who is so fixated on something in this world. You see, Jesus tells this man to therefore make a point. He listened to this man and said: Look, listen. So in a sense Jesus kind of stopped in the midst of His preaching and He told a parable. He told a parable to warn. To warn. Now that’s why in verse 15, He said: “And He said to them”.

Now He turns away from this man and He looked to the others as well. And He said look, and He said this: “Take heed and beware”. Yes, we say be on guard. So Jesus now is giving a warning. This parable is a warning. This is what Jesus wants to tell these people. And so He tells a story- a story about a rich man. You all want to be rich? You all want to be rich? I think everybody will raise hand. If you are in the class for Sunday school alright, you say anybody wants to be rich? Everybody will raise. Terrible alright, but it’s common. So Jesus said now let Me tell you a story about a rich man.

And Jesus said you know what? You know what God has to say about this rich man? What God has to say about rich man, verse 20. He said, God said to this rich man. He said: You are a fool. You are a fool. Anybody wants to be a rich man, desire to be rich? It’s amazing. Of all the things or the adjectives as it were description that God can think of a rich person. God could say something else to this rich man. He can say you’re clever, smart, intelligent, know how to make money. This is what we would tell rich people. This is what we would think. But He said of all the things that God would say to this man, God says you are a fool.

And so that begs a question: Why? Why does God call this rich person, this rich man a fool? It’s important for us to know because this is what Jesus is saying here. He’s saying this to give a warning. He said you are foolish if you are like this man always thinking about money. That in your life, you know your whole preoccupation day in, day out, Monday to Saturday or even including Sunday, everything about you is to want to be rich. I say that is foolish. And let me give you the reasons why. The reason why. The reason why this man in this parable who is rich is considered by God a fool because he fails to see three important truths. Three important truths.

And that’s the problem. People fail to see these three important truths, that’s why they follow the path of this man in pursuit of riches and considered by God as fools. What are those truths? Number one, what are those truths that this man failed to see? Number one, he fails to see that his life is as one day. His life is as one day. Look at verse 20 again. And God said to this man: “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you”. Your life is not in your hands. You do not determine how many years you will live on earth, although earlier on alright- earlier on he said alright in verse 19. He said: “I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years””.

No, you do not decide that you still have many years. Now, that is foolishness. It is foolish to think that we get to decide. God says: No, I get to decide, and it is God who said to you when your life will be required. He said this night. God said, I decide this is your last night. And this man fails to grasp that. He fails to understand that, just like so many, many, many people on earth. Then you might ask: In what sense is life as one day? In what sense is our life as one day? It is in the sense of what James tells us in James chapter 4. James chapter 4, beginning in verse 13.

Now listen to what James writes here. James 4:13, where James says now concerning a group of people who said this: “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit; whereas””. Now this is something that you don’t see. “Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life?” Now, this is something that the Bible constantly underscores, constantly emphasises to help us see this reality in order to be wise. If you do not see this, you are a fool. If you do not see your life as a day, that you do not know what will happen tomorrow, and that you might not have tomorrow; if you do not understand that, you do not see this, you are a fool.

And so what Jesus is saying in this story is that this rich man, he doesn’t understand he has got no tomorrow. So many people have got no tomorrow. Here’s a story of a dying man. He’s dying, he doesn’t know. Would not live to see another day. It is sad. I know of many people who have just disappeared. I loved that store in USJ 14 that sells hakka mee. And for the past many weeks, now I tried to go there, and no more. Now I understand that the owner of that restaurant has died of Covid. No more! And the aunty, the leicha aunty in New Apollos in USJ 4, no more. The leicha shop, no more. No tomorrow. This man here in Luke chapter 12 that Jesus talks about is an illustration of so many lives on earth.

We do not know whether we will survive this pandemic. Every day people are dying. No tomorrow for them, and yet people do not live life with that realisation. People do not live life with that realisation, and that is foolish. And that’s what Jesus is saying. That’s why this man is a fool because he doesn’t understand that his life is as one day. Every day we ought to live our life that way, mindful that our life may anytime be required of us and we don’t get to decide. Secondly, what is that this man cannot see? Now first, he cannot see alright- he cannot see that his life is one day. And those who boast about tomorrow, James tells us, is arrogant. You are arrogant if you boast about tomorrow. You live life as if you have tomorrow, that is arrogance.

Secondly, now this man is a fool because he fails to see that life does not consist in having a lot of things. Back to Luke chapter 12. And Jesus says and He looked at this man. He heard him, and then He turned to the multitude and said listen. Listen. This man is a fool. Why? Because he doesn’t understand what verse 15 says: “And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.””. This is so contrary to the thinking of the world, so contrary to what we are hearing every day from the world. They’re constantly telling us that life is about things. Life is about possession, and we all believed it.

And so Jesus is saying that here’s the warning. Here’s the warning that this man here is completely duped. He’s completely deceived by money, by this desire for money. So He says be on guard or beware of these lies. Don’t be deceived by money. Money is a great liar. Money is a great liar. And what is money lying to you? What is money telling you every day that makes you think about money all the time? You wouldn’t be thinking about money all the time if you do not believe these lies. You see, money is telling you that if you lose me, you’ll lose your life because your life is me. I’m your life. That’s the reason why when people lose an investment alright the stock market comes down, they also jump down. Why? Because they believe in this lie.

Money is telling you that your life has no purpose or no meaning apart from me. I am your meaning. I am your purpose. I’m the reason why you are living. You should be, now you are alive, now you should be living. And money is also telling you that you are nothing. You are a nobody if you don’t have me. If you have me, you’re very important. Therefore there’s no such thing as a poor VIP or VVIP. All VVIPs have money. You have no money, you are not a VIP. Money is telling us these things all the time. If you have money, you have privilege. And so if you have money, you have privilege banking alright. If you have money, you have happiness because without me there’s no happiness. Sounds familiar? Sounds like the things that we, you know, we hear all the time.

Money tells us that if you lose me, you’ll lose your security. And that’s why people feel anxious when they lose money or when they don’t have money. They don’t feel secure, and they think that that is their security. And so money is lying to us all the time. Money is lying to this man. That’s why he is not listening to Jesus’ solemn message. He is thinking about money. He believes in money. He believes that money is everything. Money is his life. Money tells him you know how important I am? How important I am? Money is very, very important to many, many, many, many people. Worse, and many people are helping to spread these lies. Many people are helping to spread this lie.

If you attend a seminar, it tells you the same thing. If you go to a conference, it tells you the same thing. You go to your office, the people tell you the same thing. Everywhere, people are helping to spread this lie money is the most important thing. Money is your life. Money is your purpose. Money is your security, we hear that all the time. Our teachers tell us that, our professors tell us that. And worst of all, our parents tell us that. Our parents tell us that money is the most important. Go and study medicine because that’s how to be rich, and becoming rich is important, the most important thing. Have money is the most important. Are you helping to spread these lies? That’s what Jesus is saying. Beware. Beware. Be on guard. Do not believe in these lies.

And so Jesus counters that. Jesus is countering that and therefore tell these people, no, He says. No, your life does not consist in the abundance of things. Your life is not about money. Your life is not about having a lot of money. Then you ask them: What is life? If life is not about money, then what is life? You see for a lot of people, if life is not about money, there’s nothing to live for. If life is not about money, what is life? Now let the Bible tell us what life really is. John 17:3. John 17:3, and listen to what Jesus said: “And this is eternal life”. This is abundant life. You want eternal life, you want abundant life, you want meaningful life, this is it.

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” That is life. Life is knowing God. Meaningful life, abundant life is about knowing Jesus. It’s about knowing God. It’s about having a personal relationship with God. It’s about getting right with God. That is the message of the Bible. That is what Jesus is saying. Don’t be deceived by the messaging of the world. They’re telling you a different story. They’re telling your life is like this, is about all these riches, about these possessions that Jesus points in the other direction. He said life is about knowing God. And therefore, and Paul understands that when he writes to the Philippians in Philippians 3- Philippians 3:10. Now listen to Paul here in Philippians 3:10.

He says: “that I may know Him”, and Paul says that is my goal in life. That is my priority. That is my obsession. My obsession is not money. My obsession is God. It’s to know Him and to be right with Him- to be right with Him. In fact, he writes to Timothy and he gives this warning. Unless you people, he said. You people who are thinking about money all the time. You people are so obsessed like this man here who is so obsessed, so preoccupied with money, with wealth, with riches, who desire to be rich to want to be the next millionaire or billionaire. And Paul tells Timothy, you know what? Let me tell you something. In First Timothy chapter 6- First Timothy chapter 6, beginning in verse 6. Paul says: “Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”.

You know to be godly and to be content, that is beautiful. It’s great gain. “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we will carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with all these we shall be content. But (verse 9) those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, pierced themselves through many sorrows.”. Paul says the same things as what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying here. Beware about money.

Beware of this desire to be rich, to be the next millionaire. Beware that you know when you are so preoccupied, so obsessed day in, day out about making more money and more money and more money. Beware. So this man is a fool because he fails to see that life is not about money. Life does not you know, does not consist in the possessions of things. Life is not about things, about property, about money. And thirdly. This man is a fool firstly because he fails to see life as one day. And secondly, because he fails to see that life does not consist in the abundance of things. And thirdly, he also fails to see that heavenly riches is more important than earthly reaches. He fails to see that heavenly riches is more important than earthly riches.

How many of us think more about heavenly treasures than earthly treasures? I think I’ve lived long enough to say that not many- not many people think more about heavenly riches than earthly riches. Most people are so fixated on the earthly. And so God says in verse 21: “So he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”. In other words, there is such a thing as you are rich in this world, and there’s such a thing as being rich towards God. Rich towards the things of the world and rich towards the things of heaven. And this man failed to realise that. He thinks that you know earthly riches is everything. He doesn’t think of heavenly riches.

And that’s why Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount in, you might remember in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says do not lay up treasures on earth, where it can be destroyed and decay and be taken away, be stolen away. But then He says but lay up treasures in heaven. Now, so Jesus is saying the same thing. There’s such thing as treasures on earth and treasures in heaven, and treasures in heaven is more important than treasures on earth. And so there is two things about this man which we must say here about his foolishness is that this man is rich for himself. He’s rich like many, many people who are rich, but the rich in the things of the world. So what we are saying is that we are not saying that this man is not rich, but he’s rich but treasures on earth has plenty.

But the problem is this, that he’s not rich towards God. That is the problem, he’s not rich towards God. What does it mean to be rich towards God? It is the opposite of laying up treasures on earth alright. Laying up treasure in heaven is opposite of laying up treasures on earth. What does it mean to be rich towards God? I think John puts it this way in his episode in First John chapter 2 alright- 1 John 2:15. Now this is what John says. Now he says: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”. Now that is what it means alright- that is what it means. This man is not rich towards God because his love is in the world. His love is in the things of the world.

That’s why John says do not love the world. Do not love the world. Do not lay up treasures on earth. “For all that is in the world (verse 16) —the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father”. It’s of the world. There’s such thing as of the Father, and there’s such things as of the world. But John is saying do not love the things of the world. Verse 17: “For the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”. There is a reason in other words why Jesus is telling us do not love the world. Do not love the things of the world because these things are passing.

These things are temporary, but the things of God are eternal. That’s why treasures in heaven are more important than treasures on earth, and this man cannot see that. This man cannot see that. And so he is not rich towards God in that his heart is not moved in a different direction. His heart is so attached to the world and the things of the world. His heart is not moved in the other direction towards God, towards the things of God. In other words, he does not do what Jesus tells us in this chapter (chapter 12) to seek first the kingdom of God. If you move your heart, you see, say where your treasure is, there your heart will be also, Jesus says. Here’s your treasure, that’s why your heart is moving in this direction.

That’s why this man, he’s not listening to Jesus. He’s thinking about his inheritance. His heart is in this direction. And Jesus said: Look, your heart needs to change. Your heart needs to change in the other direction towards God, towards the kingdom of God. Seek first the kingdom of God. Every day people are laying up treasures- laying up treasures. Either they are laying up treasures like verse 30 says: “For all these things the nations of the world seek”, the treasures on earth. Every day their hearts are moved in that direction. But only those who move their hearts in a different direction is considered as rich towards God. In verse 31, he who seeks the kingdom of God.

Now that is what Jesus is saying in this story alright in this parable. I say it’s in a direct response to the man who is so fixated on the things of this world, whose heart is moved so much and so trapped and so preoccupied in the riches of this world, and Jesus says beware. Let us seek different treasures, laying up treasures that are eternal that cannot be taken away from us. Let us pray.

“Our Father in heaven, we pray this morning that You’ll help us not to be foolish. And we know that many of us indeed have fallen into this trap. And we know that so often we are like this man. We are fools. We are fools because we fail to see exactly the things that Jesus says here. We fail to see the brevity of life that we might not even have tomorrow. We fail to see that life is not about things, and we fail to see that heavenly treasures are more important. And we pray, Lord that You’ll help us. Grant us wisdom. Make us wise, that we might see these truth and live right before You. For we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.