LUKE 12:13-21
WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY?

I remember when I was a student, a local church once put on an event entitled: 
	Would you invite Jesus to speak at your church?

When I told a friend of mine I was going, she got a bit impatient.
	She thought it sounded like one of those nights where they preach to the converted – of course, when you invite a group of Christians together to think about inviting Jesus to our churches, then we’re bound to answer ‘yes’!

But the purpose of that night was to show that it wasn’t such an easy question for Christians to answer after all.
	The speaker argued that Jesus’ style of teaching would often make a lot of Christians uneasy and uncomfortable, and that a lot of the preaching and teaching that goes on in our churches is far-removed from what Jesus modelled in his own life.

Jesus’ teaching in the Bible is provocative and when we seek to really listen to it can make us feel very uncomfortable.

As we come to one of Jesus’ most challenging parables here this morning, I want to broaden that question.

Would you invite Jesus to dinner?  Would you invite Jesus to a party?

What do we look for in a party guest?
	Generally, it’s good conversation – someone friendly and easy to talk to – good fun – relaxed.

The Jesus of the Bible in some ways could fulfil all of these criteria – but there’s another big question we might ask of a party guest.
	Will he / she offend the other guests?

It’s at this point that we might decide not to invite Jesus…!

In the parable we’re looking at this morning, Jesus confronts two of the biggest taboos in our society – and the society of his own day.
	Money and death.

Money
	Often a difficult topic to discuss – it can be embarrassing to talk about how much or how little we earn.
	It can be awkward for Christians also to discuss how much or how little we give!  (remember the Amos series…?)

Death
	Has long replaced sex as the big no-no in conversation – it’s been described in the past as the ‘ultimate statistic’, as each and every one of us will die, but it’s still not something we much want to discuss…

So by telling this parable, Jesus could be seen as offensive.
	His story here is pretty ruthless in its directness.

Jesus never seemed afraid to use shock-tactics in his teaching.

The context for Jesus’ parable here in Luke is that Jesus in on his way to Jerusalem.
	Luke 9:51 tells us that ‘the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven’
	Jesus is heading towards the cross – he’s on his way towards his death, to fulfil the purpose for which he came into the world.

Luke describes this stage near the end of Jesus’ life as the height of his popularity.
	Again and again we’re told that large crowds were following Jesus, until at the beginning of chapter 12 Luke tells us: a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another’ (12:1).

Luke is telling us here – Jesus was a hit!  He was extremely popular at this stage of his life!

His ability to perform miracles has attracted the crowds – his teaching and his authority have proved deeply attractive.

But Jesus knows that the crowd following him is fickle
	In 11:29 he responds to the great numbers following him by describing them as ‘a wicked generation’ which is far more interested in ‘miraculous signs’ than they are in Jesus.

So – Jesus’ audience for this parable is large and mixed.
	He is teaching large numbers of people who know very little about him – and at the same time he is teaching his own disciples as well.

He is teaching people with little or no understanding of who he is and why he has come – and at the same time he is teaching people who have left their old lives to follow him.

Jesus’ hearers are mixed – and he has something to teach all of them with this parable.

For us this morning as we come to this parable -
	It might first look like a story for people who don’t yet know Jesus, to scare them into seeing their need of him.

But it comes as part of some wider teaching in chapter 12 specifically directed at Jesus’ disciples, so it has a lot to say to them also.

However you would define yourself this morning – whether you’d say you were a committed long-time Christian, a young Christian, a struggling believer or someone who doesn’t believe in Jesus at all -
	this parable has something to say to us all.

So looking over this parable, we’ve already seen that it is perhaps one of Jesus’ most shocking and offensive parables, dealing directly as it does with money and death.

Large crowds are following Jesus – Jesus is popular!
	Many of us in his position would work hard to keep those crowds interested – to keep them attracted to our message!

How many times are churches today tempted to soften the message of the gospel to keep people interested!

I know in the youth groups I’m involved in, there is a constant temptation to cut out the ‘offensive bits’ of the gospel – to leave out the tough bits of teaching and the huge challenges Jesus makes to us, so that the teenagers will come back!
	
And that temptation grows as the numbers grow!

Jesus doesn’t fall into this trap
	He is not afraid to challenge the crowds, to issue stark warnings to them in his teaching like this story this morning.

At least part of the message of this parable is: You don’t know how long you’ve got – you could die tonight – are you ready for that?

Why is Jesus willing to use these shock-tactics?  Why is Jesus so willing to offend his hearers?

Because he loves his hearers!
	He loves them so much that he refuses to leave them in the dark when it comes to the fragile position they all live in!

A big problem in my life – and it’s perhaps a problem for many Christians – is that I can confuse loving someone with being polite to them!

The polite thing to do, as we’ve already said, is not to talk about money or death – the polite thing to do is certainly not to mention religion or God!

But that isn’t the loving thing to do!

So often, we interpret Jesus’ command to ‘love our neighbour’ as meaning ‘never offend them’
	We live in fear of offending people – we long for a Christianity that won’t offend or shock – a Christianity that is nice and gently appealing!

The danger of politeness is that we are most polite with the people we don’t really know
	I’d even go as far as saying, we are most polite with the people we don’t really care about!

Family dinner times when I was young weren’t that polite – we often talked over one another and we argued a fair bit
	But there was no doubt that we loved one another!

Jesus loves the people he’s talking to here – and loving someone can often mean warning them.

His story here is designed to shock – even to frighten his hearers into thinking what they’re living for
	But that shock was then designed to lead them to see their need of Jesus.

Jesus was prepared to offend people because he loved them!

Do you love the people in your life?

Do you love the people sitting around you – the people you work with – the people in your family?

If so, then like Jesus your love for them may sometimes lead you to offend them with the truth of who Jesus is and why we need him
	That applies to Christian friends and non-Christian friends – often, Christians need to be reminded of who Jesus is by fellow-Christians, even when they don’t want to know.

We should share the good news about Jesus with gentleness and respect
	But we shouldn’t be afraid to offend people with the message.

Let’s look at this story together now.
	What does this have to teach us this morning?

This is one of those parables of Jesus that is better read without the title traditionally given to it.

Jesus told this story in response to a request from someone in the crowd.
	v.13 – Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. 

There were many travelling Jewish teachers around in Jesus’ day – and many of them also provided legal advice and help.

This man clearly hoped Jesus would do the same and that he would sort out his dispute with his brother over the family inheritance.

Like many in the crowd, this man was following Jesus – but he was doing so, so Jesus would make his life better!
	He saw Jesus as a provider of sound legal advice – as a lifestyle guru – as a teacher worth listening to, so long as he delivered the results he was looking for.

This man’s question showed that he saw Jesus as someone who could help him – it also revealed that the man thought he was in charge, not Jesus!

He basically commands Jesus to deliver the verdict he wants!  That this brother would divide the inheritance with him!

Do we ever treat Jesus like that?

Do we ever presume that we are in control – that Jesus is sitting around, waiting for our prayers so that he can spring into action and help us?

Do our prayer lives presume that we are in control?

We need to be careful that when we ask God to help us, we don’t fall into the trap this man does here – 
	of interpreting God’s willingness to hear us and to help us to mean that we’re the ones in control, that we can call the shots!

God is in control – and we need to be praying for things in accordance with his will and for his glory, not our own!

Perhaps the thing we desperately want God to do for us in our lives will actually not bring glory to God in our lives 
	So God will not give us the answer we’re looking for.

Are you willing to accept that?

Here, Jesus doesn’t give the man the answer he wants.
	In v.14 he refuses to get involved in this family dispute over inheritance, and instead he uses this man’s request to warn the crowd and his disciples of the dangers of ‘all kinds of greed’.

Read v.15
	And then he tells his parable.

The story is a simple one.
	I’ve already said it’s better read without the traditional title of ‘the rich fool’, because at first the man in the story doesn’t look like a fool at all!

In fact, you could say that the man who has just questioned Jesus would dearly love to trade places with the man in the story!

He is described as a ‘rich man’ – and Jesus takes up his story when he’s about to get even richer!

He has made his money as a farmer – and after a bumper crop, he is in the happy position of working out what to do with a bigger harvest than he’s ever enjoyed before.

A modern equivalent could be a company director who is taken by surprise by the success of one of his products, and who suddenly is a lot richer than he ever dreamed!

The decision he makes seems a pretty sensible one.
	He will build barns big enough for his grain – the old ones won’t do any longer – and then he will take it easy.
	He plans to enjoy the results of his harvest for some time to come!

Now it’s hard to come to a story like this one completely unaffected by its traditional title
	But I think if we did, we would reach v.19 and think: who could blame him for wanting to enjoy the fruit of his hard work?

We’re at a time of year when many of us finally have the opportunity to rest from our work and to take things easy for a change.

All the money we work hard for throughout the year can now be used to help us relax.
•	We can go on holiday
•	We can visit friends and family
•	We can eat well, take life easy, enjoy ourselves!

I for one am really looking forward to my holidays this year!

You see, the rich farmer’s attitude towards his earnings here is perfectly understandable – and if we’re honest, we would all be pretty sympathetic to it…

- if it wasn’t for God’s intervention in v.20!
	Read v.20 aloud.

It is GOD who calls this rich farmer a ‘fool’
	Without his intervention, we might have called him ‘the happy farmer’ – ‘the lucky farmer’!

Without God intervening – without v.20 – this parable would be a modern success story.
•	‘Hard work pays off for local farmer!’ – ‘A great British success story!’

The farmer could have shown off his new barns in Hello! Magazine, or on one of the many property development shows on TV.

…if God hadn’t intervened.

But that is precisely the point Jesus is making!
•	God does intervene!
•	And he always will!

This rich farmer’s story is a success story, only when we leave God out of the picture
	Which is precisely what the farmer does – and precisely why God calls him a fool!

It is an amazing thing that the living God of the Bible – 
•	the God and Father of Jesus Christ – 
•	the God who made the universe, our world and each and every one of us
-actually allows himself to be ignored by the people he has made – but he does!

Ever since humanity rejected God and rejected the relationship with God they were created to enjoy, God has allowed people to live their lives with little or no reference to him.

A question I get asked a lot at FNT is: ‘Why can’t we see God?’
	The FNT members presume that if they could see God, then they would pay attention to him.
	As it is, they struggle to remember him throughout the week.

We cannot see God – this rich farmer couldn’t see God
	So it’s all too easy to live as if God didn’t exist.

But we must understand here
	Not seeing God is never an excuse for ignoring him in our lives!

The rich farmer is held responsible by God for ignoring him – his life is taken from him and he is judged by God.
	We need to see here that every one of us will be held responsible for ignoring God – and we need to take that warning seriously!

Why does God hold us responsible for ignoring him?
	Because it is the foolish man or woman who lives in the world God has made as if God did not exist!

That is the thrust of Jesus’ challenge to us here this morning:
	Will we be fools like this farmer, or will we be wise in our lives?

In the Bible, being a fool has nothing to do with intellectual ability or education.
	Psalm 14:1 is the simplest definition of what the Bible calls a fool.

The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’  They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.

A fool according to the Bible is someone who chooses to ignore and reject God.
	And Scripture is clear – that is a moral choice that we make – to ignore God and live as if he didn’t exist!

There is evidence all around us that there is a God – 
	in the way this world has been made and in the way we have been made.

And there was evidence all around this rich farmer that there was a God – but he chose to ignore it!

Why does God call this rich farmer a fool?

•	He lives as if he is in complete control of his life – he lives as if he is God!

See v.16 – how does Jesus describe this farmer’s success?
	I said earlier we might naturally describe his crop as the result of his hard work – but Jesus doesn’t!

Instead, he attributes the farmer’s success to the ground!
	Read v.16.

It was the ground of this rich man – not the rich man himself – which produced the good crop.
	He might have sown the seed – but it was the ground that produced the crop!

It was something beyond the farmer’s control that made him so wealthy.
	But v.17 shows that he fails to see this!

What shall I do?  I have no place to store my crops.

Ultimately, Jesus is telling us that this farmer’s crops are not his!
	They come from the ground that God had made, so they belong to God!

The farmer is a fool because he chose to see himself as in control of his own destiny – when in fact it was God who had given him his wealth, and it was God who could take it away!

Can we fall into this trap?
	Do we see our belongings – our earnings – all that we have as ultimately belonging to us – or ultimately belonging to God?

If you choose to ignore God and to live as if all that you have belongs to you and you alone, then Jesus would call you a fool.

We need to learn from the example of this rich farmer.
	God may well bless us with riches – with a home, a car, with more money than we can spend…
	But if we forget to thank him for them, then we are guilty of rejecting the God who has given them to us!

A useful definition of sin is ingratitude
	Ingratitude towards the God who made us, towards the God who has given us all that we have!

What we need to learn is to thank God for everything he gives us
	Not just for money, but for family, friends, job, hobbies, holidays…

The Bible tells us that ‘every good gift comes from God’ – and so it is right to thank God for them
	Whether for the love and support of a trusted friend – or for the TV programme you’ve just been able to relax in front of!

God is the God of our whole lives – and we need to thank and praise him as such!

We have nothing that we did not receive from God 
	We need to remember to be grateful to him and to avoid the foolish pride of this rich farmer.

The other big way in which this rich farmer is a fool in God’s eyes is that
•	He believes he will live forever – or at least that his life will continue for some time to come!

In the parable, God tells the farmer that this belief is badly mistaken 
	And the result is that the farmer loses his wealth and faces God unprepared.

In some senses, it should be easier for us today to acknowledge the fragility of life.
	We live at a time when the threat of terrorist attack can seem very real, and the pictures of the London tube bombings are still vivid.

But in fact, we still take every opportunity to avoid facing up to the reality of death.

Jesus is clear here
	We are not in control of when we ourselves will die, and no amount of wealth can buy that control!

We need to be ready to face God today!
	We need to stop putting off till tomorrow or till later in life.

If you’ve never placed your trust in Jesus – if you have never accepted your need of forgiveness and your need of Jesus, then Jesus is telling you: don’t delay!

Place your trust in Jesus today!  
	You need to belong to Jesus if you are going to be accepted by God when you die.

There is also a message here for those who trust in Jesus already.

You don’t know how long you have in this world, any more than anyone else
	You could die today, or you could die 20, 30, 40 years from now.

Serve the Lord with all the time you have left!

See v.21 – Jesus uses a phrase here to describe a life very different from that of the rich fool.

The rich fool ignores God – the rich fool lives as if he himself is God.
	But the wise disciple of Jesus trusts in God – thanks God – submits to God – 

In short, is rich towards God! (v.21)

There is a challenge for all of us here.
	Jesus warns us against ‘all kinds of greed’ in v.15 -  but he ends his parable by recommending the only type of greed that will do us good –
	A greed to know and love God more!

We need to use our lives to know more of the God who made us and who through Jesus has saved us.
	And we do that through a life of trust in and obedience to Jesus.

Jesus goes on in v.22 and following to show that God can be trusted for all that we need – that he will give us the essentials of life.

It’s important to note that sometimes God will do that through the practical care of his people
	And so we need to be committed to helping fellow-believers in difficult circumstances, both in our local church and in the wider world.

Ultimately, though, it is God who is caring for us – and it is God in whom we can trust and who we can thank!

So we do not need to chase after what we need – God promises to provide us with it!

And how can we be rich towards God and long to know him and love him more?
•	We must let him speak to us!

 We need to read his word and pray to him – to become greedy to know more of God and more of Christ!

Just as the rich fool put time and effort into earning money, we need to put time and effort into knowing God!

We need to devote ourselves to a steady, daily time to listen to God’s word and be changed by it!
	It doesn’t have to be long – in fact, it shouldn’t be too long a time each day; instead, it should be sustainable.

But we need to listen to God speak to us.

•	We must seek to obey God

Elsewhere, Jesus describes his yoke as easy and his burden as light – but we need to take them up!

I know in my own life, the most miserable times have been when I know I’ve been disobeying God –
	Either doing things I shouldn’t be doing, or failing to do things I should be doing!

The key to being rich towards God and to being happy in God is to obey him
	That is the clearest indication we can make that we know God and we love him!

So – as we finish – this parable has clear warnings to us on how we think about the possessions God may give to us and has given to us in our lives.

•	We must cultivate grateful hearts to God for all his good gifts, and we must avoid living for and worshipping God’s gifts, rather than God himself.

•	We must not ignore God – instead we must thank him and trust in him as our loving Father in heaven, who will provide for us physically, spiritually, emotionally – often through the love he stirs up among his people.

•	We must use our lives to serve God, always acknowledging that we don’t know how long we have in this world.

And the best way we can live our lives is to long to be rich towards God
	To know God – to love God – to treasure God!
	And to show him how much we treasure him through lives of obedience!

We began looking at this parable by seeing that Jesus wasn’t always polite – instead, he is loving!

Here, he wants us to know what is truly worth living for!
	
It’s not wealth – it’s not success
	It is being rich towards God!
	It’s loving God and being loved by him!

That is the wealth that will last forever!