2 Corinthians 5:1 & 4: What to Expect in Heaven

INTRODUCTION

I have read that there is a community of Christians in Africa, where—whenever one of their members dies—they don’t say, “He has departed,” or “She has departed” but always, “He has arrived” or “She has arrived.”

In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul compares this earthly body to a tent. And he compares the body we will have for eternity to a “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (v1).

Then he goes on to write, “For while we are still in this tent, we sigh with anxiety; not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life” (v4)

I will admit that we don’t know much about heaven. How could we? It will be a different world.

Last Christmas Eve we brought a blind woman to church with us. She was born blind. She had never seen anything.

At our service we had candles. Colored lights shone around us. There was a lot of talk about how Jesus is the light of the world.

I wondered: How can Chris imagine what light is? How could I describe it to her?

I couldn’t think of a way. To a blind person light and color is simply unimaginable.

That’s why it is so hard to imagine heaven. We couldn’t understand if someone described it to us.

But there are some things we know for sure. And this afternoon I want to talk about some of the things we know for sure about our Eternal Home.

I. When we get home, we will be changed.

A. We will be beautiful! Jesus said, “The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43).

One of the hard things about growing old is that we are not as good looking as we used to be. This may be even harder for some of you who were especially beautiful when you were young.

The most famous early New England poet was a lady named Anne Bradstreet. At the end of Anne Bradstreet’s life she had tuberculosis and had had horrible lesions on her arm. He son, Simon, reported that her nurse thoughtlessly remarked that she had never seen such an arm. Her son said, “My most dear mother answered, 'That arm shall be a glorious arm!'”

Someday we will all be beautiful beyond our wildest dreams. We will be more than beautiful: we will be glorious. But we won’t be vain because everyone will be glorious. We will be occupied with admiring each other. I don’t think there will be any mirrors in heaven.

B. We will be changed because we will be more real than we ever were on this earth.

We will not be ghosts. We will not be able to see through one another.

Sometimes when a person’s health has declined a great deal, people say, “He’s just a shadow of his former self.” On earth, even at our best, we are but a shadow of the self we will be in glory.

C. We will be changed because we will be perfect.

There will be no more struggle with sin.

We will be free to fulfill our destiny as obedient, worshiping children of God.

We will be set free from our selfishness, our self-centeredness, our anger, envy, grumbling, all our hateful habits.

We will be free to be what God always intended us to be…and it will be wonderful!

We will be perfect and we will dwell in the Paradise of God.

II. When we get home, we will be full of joy!

A. Psalm 16 ends this way:

Thou dost show me the path of life.

In thy presence is fullness of joy.

In thy right hand are pleasures forever more.

Jesus speaks of the destiny of the Lord’s faithful servants as “entering into the joy of the Lord”(Matthew 25:23).

In an old book I found this quaint comment: “Here some drops of joy enter into us, but there we shall enter into joy.”

B. The story is told of a lady who read somewhere that eating oat bran muffins would help her to live a long life. So she ate oat bran muffins every day and lived to be a hundred. When she got to heaven, all her friends had been there a long time. They were having such a good time that she was heard to mutter, “Oh why did I eat all those oat bran muffins?”

In our family we like that story because our mother ate bran muffins. She said they tasted like sawdust, but she ate them because they were healthy. When someone told her that story, she laughed so hard that tears came into her eyes.

Incidentally, my mother also lived to be a hundred.

III. When we get home, we will dwell in love!

A. A Christian lady in a nursing home asked me almost every time I came: “Do you think we will know our loved ones in heaven?”

I told her: “Of course we will know each other in heaven. We will live in a city. You don’t live in a city alone. Jesus told us to love one another. We begin on earth to learn to love. In heaven we will learn to love perfectly. We will love one another for all eternity.”

B. Jesus compared the coming kingdom to a banquet. At a banquet, we have company. We’ll see our friends and make ever so many new ones.

Jesus said, “I tell you, many will come from the east and from the west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11).

 Jesus told his disciples: “As my Father appointed a kingdom for me, so do I appoint for you that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom…” (Luke 22:29-30).

IV. When we get home to heaven, we will see Jesus and worship him!

A. This is the most important part.

The last verse in Psalm 17: “As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness. When I awake I shall be satisfied with beholding your form.”

St. John wrote this: “Dear friends, we are God’s children now. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2)

B. We will worship in heaven.

We will do many things besides worship.

I think we will play…tell stories…create works of art…listen to music…have conversations with angels and saints…

We will be always learning, always growing, always making new friends, always having new experiences.

We will meet Jesus face-to-face. He will talk to us.

Worship will be the high point of our experience in heaven.

I don’t know whether we will have sermons, but we will have singing—we will sing with the angels

In the Old Testament book of Zephaniah we read that God himself with sing: “He will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival” (Zephaniah 3:17).

For those who love Jesus, worship will be exciting.

Our worship will be more excitement than the excitement teenagers have at rock concerts—that’s a kind of worship...

More excitement than fans have at a football game—that’s a kind of worship too.

Charlotte’s father was from Wales. The Welsh people love to sing.

Little towns in Wales have choirs.

Coal miners and factory workers have choirs.

When we visited Wales, we visited a Presbyterian church where the congregation was singing in four-part harmony—like a choir—from words-only hymnbooks!

Welsh-Americans have hymn-singing festivals here in the United States. Charlotte and I have been to a couple of these festivals.

Now, as you know, I can’t sing well at all, so in church I don’t sing loud. But at these hymn singing festivals there are hundreds of people. The sopranos sit together, the altos sit together, and so with the tenors and basses.

I sat in the tenor section surrounded good singers. I sang as loud as I wanted and no one looked at me. I felt like I was singing as well as anyone because I couldn’t hear myself. The thought came to me: “Why, this is like heaven!”

I’ve never had more fun.

We will need our new and stronger, glorified bodies to contain all the joy that will be ours whenever we worship in heaven.

Then we will truly “enter into the joy of the Lord.”

CONCLUSION

Let me finish with a beautiful picture of our Eternal Home from the last book of the Bible, the next –to-the-last chapter: Revelation 21:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth;

for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,

and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,

coming down out of heaven from God,

prepared as a bride adorned for her husband;

and I heard a great voice from the throne saying,

“Behold the dwelling of God is with people.

He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,

and God himself will be with them;

he will wipe away every tear from their eyes,

and death shall be no more,

neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more,

for the former things have passed away.”

And he who sat upon the throne said,

“Behold, I make all things new…”

What Can We Learn from the Book of Job?

INTRODUCTION

Unlike any other sermon you’ve probably ever heard, this one is not from a single verse or a single story in the Bible but from a whole book—a book of 42 chapters—44 pages in my Bible—the book of Job—just before Psalms in the Old Testament.

Job is one of the most important books in the Bible because it considers the biggest question we all have to face when we believe in God.

That question is: Why do bad things happen to good people?

I. Job was a great man. We read, “This man was the greatest of all the people of the east” (1:1 and 3). And Job was a good man. God said of Job: “There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil” (1:8).

A. At the beginning of the story Job was rich, with thousands of sheep, camels, oxen, and donkeys, and many servants.

He had seven sons and three daughters. It was a loving family. The sons took turns holding parties in their houses and invited their sisters.

Job was supremely blessed by God, and Job gave God the credit for all he had.

B. The villain of the story enters. He is Satan--called in scripture, “The Accuser.”

Satan taunts God. He says, “Job worships you only because you bless him. Take away the blessings, and Job will curse you!”

So God gives him permission, and Satan goes to work.

First, bandits steal all of Job’s herds and kill his servants.

Then, when Job’s seven sons and three daughters are dining together in the oldest brother’s house, a sudden windstorm collapses the house and all Job’s children are killed.

C. But Job keeps his faith. He says, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:21).

We all know how hard it is to keep trusting God when everything goes wrong.

But worse is still to come.

Satan inflicts loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

Job had what the ancients called “leprosy.” Leprosy made you an outcast from society. Lepers could no longer mix with well people.

Job goes and sits among the ashes and scratches his sores with a broken piece of pottery.

Job is as miserable as anyone can be.

Then another blow falls.

Job’s poor wife is at her wits’ end. In her despair she tells Job to go ahead and curse God—and let God take his life, too.

But Job is still faithful. He says, “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?”

The author tells us: “In all this Job still did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing” (2.10).

II. Three friends come from far countries to console Job in his sorrow. Their names are Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

A. “When they saw him, they did not recognize him, and they raised their voices and wept aloud; they tore their robes and threw dust in the air upon their heads. They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven night, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great” (Job 2:11-13).

B. Then poor Job cracked.

Some of you have experienced long, drawn-out suffering. At first you think: I can stick it out. I will keep my faith. I will not give up. But as the trouble only gets worse and worse, you feel, that, not only that you are going through the wringer, but you are stuck between the rollers.

That’s what happened with Job. We read that he opened his mouth and cursed the day he was born. Job wished he had been a stillborn child. He wished that he was in that dark and dreary place of the dead. His lament goes on for a whole chapter.

C. After the seven days of silence, Job’s friends begin to give him advice.

Eliphaz speaks first. At first, Eliphaz is gentle. He tells Job how good and kind Job had been: “See, you have instructed many; you have strengthened the weak hands. You have supported those who were stumbling…” (Job 4:3).

Eliphaz reminds Job that while no human is perfect before God, God is always good and righteous. He advises Job to pray hard and seek God.

Job answers with another lament. Job says, “The arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me....O that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!” (6:4-9).

Then Bildad takes his turn. He reminds Job that God is just; God must be punishing Job for his sins—or for his children’s sins.

Poor Job insists that he doesn’t deserve all this suffering. He wishes that God would come to him so that he could argue his case.

Next, the third friend, Zophar, tries to talk sense to Job. Zophar knows just why Job is suffering, and he tells him the remedy. “Just repent; confess your sins; God will forgive.”

As Job continues to talk back, the friends become more and more convinced that Job is hiding some dark sin. They accuse him, and Job calls them “miserable comforters” (16:2).

He tells them that though they can’t put themselves in his place, if the tables were turned, he could put himself in their place. He could speak the easy platitudes as well as they.

Bildad threatens Job with the terrors of Hell if he won’t repent. The three friends insist that Job is being punished for some dreadful sin. And Job continues to insist on his innocence.

They argue back and forth for 28 chapters.

D. Job never gives up. He clings to God. In the middle of all this back and forth, in chapter 19, Job says something remarkable. He says one of the most insightful things in the Old Testament.

Job says, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God” (19:25-26).

In this flash of insight, Job speaks more truth than he realizes.

Job has described the Land of the Dead as a dreary, desolate “land of gloom and deep darkness…gloom and chaos, where light is like darkness” (10:20-21)

There was no understanding in Job’s day of Resurrection or Heaven or a joy-filled life with God forever in eternity.

But in his pain, Job cries out that surely his Redeemer lives and on the other side of the grave he will somehow see God and be vindicated!

As we read this remarkable confession—“I know that my Redeemer lives!”—we think of Jesus, our Redeemer, who died and lives for us.

Job could not have imagined how much truth he was speaking. He was thinking that there must be some heavenly being who could be his advocate before God to argue his case.

III. Finally, God answers out of the whirlwind (chapters 35-38).

A. God quizzes Job. He asks, “Were you there when I laid the foundation of the earth?…when the morning stars sang together, and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?”

God speaks to Job in beautiful poetry for four long chapters.

God speaks of his creation—the rain, the snow, and the stars—and his wonderful creatures—the lions, mountain goats, wild oxen, the ostrich, the mighty hippopotamus and the fearsome crocodile.

God asks Job questions he can’t answer. He never answers Job’s questions. He never tells Job the meaning of his suffering, but now it doesn’t matter.

Job knows now that God has not forgotten him. God is not his enemy. God has spoken to him personally. Job is humbled; his faith is renewed.

B. Job cries out: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (42:5-6).

God has come to Job—not to answer his questions but to reveal his glory and majesty.

And Job is convinced that God is with him and cares about him. Nothing has changed yet about Job’s circumstances, but God has spoken to him. That makes all the difference

Job has learned humility—and the greatness of God.

God has reminded Job that there are mysteries in nature that are beyond his understanding—and the reason for suffering is one of those mysteries.

Job never learns the reason for his suffering. But it doesn’t matter now. All that matters is that God has spoken to him! Job is in a personal relationship with the mighty Creator.

Job has learned—what some of us have learned—that we don’t need all the answers. What matters, is that God is with us in our dark valley.

A mother lost her teenage son in an automobile accident. She tells how, on the morning of his funeral, she rose early and reached for her Bible. She read to herself the speeches of God from the whirlwind. When someone asked her why she chose those chapters, she said, “I needed to know that my pain was not all there was in the world.” (Carol Newsom, in The New Interpreter’s Bible, p631)

C. God’s part in the story ends with God instructing the three friends to ask his servant Job to pray for them.

The friends had talked theology to defend God’s reputation, but God tells them: “You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has” (42:7).

Job had said foolish things, but his heart was right. He had never given up on God.

D. And, in the end, Job’s fortunes are restored. His wife bears him more children. And what Job doesn’t know (but we know)—is that Job will see his children who have died, again in the Better Country.

Job served God in a way he never knew. He proved the falsity of Satan's taunt that no one serves God for nothing.

Job’s faithfulness had brought joy to the heart of God. Someday Job will know how pleased God was with him, for his faithfulness.

And that will be his reward.

CONCLUSION

We who live after Jesus came to earth have a great advantage over Job.

Jesus Christ has given us something that Job never had—the sure hope of a Glorious Homecoming beyond the grave.

Job’s perspective was this life—our perspective is eternity.

Whatever we suffer unjustly in this world, we know that God has all eternity to make it up to us.

We know the deeper meaning of Job’s inspired saying, “I know that my Redeemer lives…”

We know that God has sent his Son, our Lord Jesus, into the world to live among us and to die for us and to be raised and go ahead of us to prepare a place for us in the Father’s House—where all our sorrows will be forgotten and all our tears will be wiped away—and we will dwell with our Lord Jesus and the saints and angels for ever and ever in the joy of the Lord.

Acts 8:26-39: An Ethiopian Finds God in an Old Book

INTRODUCTION

I wonder what was the best vacation trip you’ve ever taken.

Maybe you’ve seen the Grand Canyon…or Yellowstone National Park…Or maybe you were able to take a trip to the Holy Land.

You have memories. You have pictures.

We’ve never traveled to any of the places I mentioned. But we did get to go to Italy. That was wonderful—so much beauty! So much history!

When I was in the army in Korea, I got a five-day vacation in Japan. That was the best vacation of my life. Japan was strange…and beautiful…and exciting.

I sent home souvenirs. But the best souvenir is a photo I took in Japan of little children playing near a temple. It hangs in our bedroom. I love that picture.

I want to read you a story in the Bible about a man who took a vacation and brought home a souvenir that changed his life.

The story is in Acts 8.26-40. Here it is:

An angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”

This is a desert road. And he rose and went. And behold an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a minister of Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

And he said, “How can I, unless some one guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this:

As a sheep led to the slaughter or a lamb before its shearer is dumb,

so he opens not his mouth.

In his humiliation justice was denied him.

Who can describe his generation?

For his life is taken up from the earth.

And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, pray, does the prophet say this, about himself or about some one else?”

The Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus.

And as they went along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What is to prevent my being baptized?”

And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip; and the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.

I. Let’s get acquainted with this Ethiopian.

A. The Ethiopian was a long way from home. Ethiopia is almost 2000 miles away from Jerusalem—farther than from Marion, Iowa, to Seattle, Washington.

Jogging along in his carriage, making perhaps 20 miles a day, it would have taken the Ethiopian at least three months to get to Jerusalem and three more to get home.

He must have saved up a lot of vacation time to be able to make such a long trip.

I suppose he came to Jerusalem because he had heard to the glorious Temple that was there.

He must also have learned somehow about the faith of the Hebrews and wanted to learn more.

B. This Ethiopian was a high official in the Ethiopian government, and he was a eunuch.

In those days, in some countries, when boys with promise were singled out for work with the government, they were castrated so that they could never marry or have a family. That way they could give their whole attention to their official duties.

This man was an important man. He was, we read, in charge of all the treasure of the queen of Ethiopia.

C. Although our Ethiopian was attracted to the Hebrew faith, he could never convert to Judaism. According to Leviticus (21:17-20), no eunuch could approach God with a sacrifice.

When at Jerusalem in the Temple courtyard, he would not been allowed to see the beautiful worship rituals.

But he heard the music of worship—the priests chanting and playing on their instruments.

He listened to Bible teaching in the colonnaded porches that surrounded the vast courtyard of the Temple.

And to make the most of his experience, he bought a souvenir—a copy of the prophecy of Isaiah.

This was a costly souvenir. The book was hand-written on a long roll of expensive papyrus or animal skins, glued together. It hand written by a professional scribe. That book would have cost more than a good house. But this Ethiopian was serious about his faith.

He was happy as he journeyed home. He had had the greatest adventure of his life. He could read and re-read his precious book and reflect on the wisdom written in it.

D. Reading in those days was a daunting task.

Words were written with no spaces in between them, and there were no sentences or paragraphs or punctuation or capitalization. You had to sound out all the words. So everyone read out loud in those days.

It would have been hard to hold that big scroll and read the book in that jogging carriage.

Isaiah is, with its 66 chapters, is one of the longest books in the Bible. In his 3 months journey home our Ethiopian would have had time to read it many times.

Isaiah is a very difficult book to understand. I have read it over and over, and have read book- length commentaries explaining it, and I still have more questions than answers.

I admire this Ethiopian for his diligence in working his way through this difficult book, written in what was, to him, a foreign language. But he knew it was the Word of God and he hungered to learn its message.

But he was puzzled. He found many obscure passages as he read, and his mind was filled with questions.

II. So God sent some help his way; a man named Philip.

A. This wasn’t the Philip who was one of Jesus’s disciples. This was another Philip, who is prominent in the Book of Acts.

This was the Philip who was chosen along with six other men to help distribute supplies to the poor widows in Jerusalem.

This was the Philip that led a big revival in Samaria, and through whom God worked many miracles of healing.

This is the Philip who had four unmarried daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9).

B. Philip didn’t know why the angel called him to go to this out-of-the-way desert road, but, as  he walked alongside the Ethiopian’s carriage, he recognized the famous words of the prophet Isaiah. Philip got excited and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

And the Ethiopian said, “How can I unless some one guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up into the chariot and sit with him.

What he was reading is perhaps—for Christians—the most important chapter in the Old Testament, the 53rd of Isaiah—a chapter that describes the meaning of Christ’s death, written hundreds of years before Jesus’s birth.

The 53rd of Isaiah includes these words:

“But he was wounded for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,

and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned every one to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

“Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news of Jesus.”

We don’t know how long Philip’s sermon lasted, but it was time enough for Philip to tell the story of Jesus and explain the way of salvation.

D. But Philip never got to finish his sermon. His friend beside him in the carriage got excited when he saw a river, and he exclaimed, “See! Here is water! What is to prevent my being baptized?”

And after he was baptized, that was the last he saw of his teacher, because “as they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.”

III. What happened after? That’s all we read, but I think I know.

A. The Ethiopian read his book over and over, and by the time he got home he knew great sections by heart.

He called his friends and told them of his discovery.

He was so happy that his face fairly shone with joy, and some of his friends wanted what he had. They also believed.

So they began to meet to study that book and learn what they could. They began a Bible study, there in Ethiopia. At first, they had just that one book and the things the Ethiopian had learned from Philip.

In time missionaries came and taught them more. They got more of the Bible books.

B. And, do you know that one of the most ancient Christian communities in the world is in Ethiopia?

I think our Ethiopian friend was one of its first leaders. Someday, we’ll learn the rest of the story.

CONCLUSION

On the troop ship crossing to ocean to Korea, during the Korean War, I met a fellow soldier from Virginia. His name was Nathan Thomas, and he was from Virginia. He was an African American.

On troop ships, the bunks are like bookcases, one above another, six high—steel frames with canvas stretched out to lie on. You just climbed up to your bunk and lay there; you couldn’t sit up.

I was talking to another soldier as he lay in his bunk, and the conversation turned to spiritual things. I noticed a third soldier hovering near—this was Nathan—He was leaning out of his bunk. He just had to get into the conversation. He told us his story. He had found salvation just a few days before at Tacoma, near Fort Lewis, from where we shipped out.

The weekend before we shipped out, Nathan had gone to a church service.

The pastor, supposing him to be a Christian, invited him up to the front of the church and asked him to give his testimony.

Nathan took the microphone and said, “ My name is Nathan Thomas and I’m from so-and-so, in Virginia. I’m not a Christian yet, but I hope to be one soon.”

The pastor put his hand on Nathan’s shoulder and said, “Brother, do you really mean that?”

And that night, just days before he boarded the ship, Nathan gave his heart to Jesus.

He was overflowing with joy. Most of us weren’t very happy on that ship. We were leaving our families and loved ones and going to a war.

But Nathan had never been so happy in his life.

I remember one time when I was with him on deck; he looked up at the sky and exclaimed about how much bluer the sky was since he had become a Christian.

Nathan was experiencing the joy of the Lord. I think that was what the Ethiopian was feeling as “he went on his way rejoicing.”

Have you experienced the joy of the Lord? Are you going on your way rejoicing?

Luke 12:13-21: A Lesson from the Rich Fool

INTRODUCTION

A bishop once preached a sermon to a wealthy congregation on the subject of “God’s Ownership.” In it he made the point that what we have, we have in trust. All that we think we own, really belongs to God.

A rich man in the congregation was upset by the sermon and invited the bishop home for lunch.

After lunch the rich man walked the bishop through his elaborate gardens and woodlands and farms. He then turned to the bishop and demanded, “Do you mean to tell me that all this is not really mine?”

The bishop smiled and said, “Why don’t you ask me that same question a hundred years from now.”

This is from Luke 12:13-21:

One of the multitude said to Jesus, “Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me.”

But Jesus said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?” And he said to them, “Take heed and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and bid larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’

“But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

“So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

I. The man in the crowd listening to Jesus had a problem, and he brought it to Jesus.

A. The man’s father had died. According to Jewish law the property was to be divided among the man’s sons, the oldest son receiving twice as much as everyone else. If the father had no sons but only daughters, the property was to be divided among the daughters. Apparently, in this case the oldest son was refusing to give the younger brother his share of the inheritance.

B. The man’s complaint may have been just. He may have suffered an injustice, and it wasn’t wrong for him to call on Jesus to help him. But Jesus pointed him to the courts as the place to seek redress.

It was no part of Jesus’s mission to judge matters that were properly the responsibility of the courts. So Jesus used this as a “teachable moment,” an opportunity to teach that man—and us—something of enormous importance for our lives.

C. Jesus said, “Take heed, and beware of all covetousness, for a person’s life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions.”

The word translated “covetousness” in the version I read is simply the word for “greed,” the desire to have more and more—more than what one needs.

The desire for more and more food is “gluttony.” The desire for more and more money or possessions is “greed.”

What the man needed to understand—and we also need to think of often—is that the value of our life is not determined by how much wealth we possess.

The value of our life is determined by whatever we have that we will be able to enjoy for eternity.

“How much did he leave?” someone asked at the rich man’s funeral.

“Every cent,” was the answer.

II. So Jesus told the Parable of the Rich Fool

A. The rich man’s problem was that his land produced abundantly, so abundantly that he had nowhere to put his bumper crop of grain.

So he set about solving his problem. It involved building bigger barns in which to store his grain and his goods until he had time to sell it.

It was actually a pretty easy problem to solve—so he thought.

We may wish we had the problem of so much money we don’t know what to do with it.

B. The rich man has it all figured out. He has a conversation with himself. (This is called a soliloquy.) He tells himself: “I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and bid larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’”

That rich man has the kind of problem many of us would like to have—a problem with an easy solution.

C. But then God interrupts the rich man’s thoughts: “Fool, this night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”

Oh, oh! Just when he thought he had all the bases covered something new enters the picture: the end of life on earth. The rich man had said, “…many years…” God says “This night…”

D. Then Jesus gives his listeners the moral of the story: “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

It is terrible to die with all our treasure on earth and not to be rich toward God.

III. Application:

A. We don’t know whether the rich man believed in God or not. What we know is that he lived as if this life on earth was all that counted.

He forgot that we are made for eternity.

When I was a child I had a little plaque that I hung above my bed. It was a picture of a little country road with flowers along the sides. On it were these lines:

“Just one life, ‘twill soon be past.

Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

I think it did me good to sleep under that and think about it from time to time.

Jesus spoke many times about laying up treasure in heaven.

How much do you have laid up in heaven?

St. Augustine commented on this man’s mistake: “He did not realize that the bellies of the poor were much safer storerooms than his barns.”

Whatever you have done for God or whatever you’ve done for others because you love God is your treasure in heaven.

Whenever you’ve generously given—whether money or time or effort—to your church or needy people or for the work of the gospel you’ve laid up in heaven—it will be a blessing for you for ever.

I don’t mean five dollars here and ten dollars there—everyone does that. It makes us feel good to help out.

Jesus is talking about whatever you’ve given that cost you something—whatever you’ve done without so that you would have more to give. That’s the treasure you’ve laid up for eternity.

Years ago when we belonged to a little country church near Wayland, Iowa, we became acquainted with a godly man named Leonard Tindall. He had formerly been wealthy but had lost almost all his wealth.

One Sunday evening he stood up in the meeting and told us that at one time he had been the largest landowner in Washington County, farming many acres of prime Iowa farmland. He had held a large interest in several businesses, and he had sold more seed corn for Pioneer Seed Corn Company than anyone in Iowa. The president of Pioneer used to phone him to talk ask his advice. He felt proud that he had the ear of the president of the largest seed corn company in the world. But then Leonard had gone bankrupt and lost almost everything he had.

After his loss, he told us, he realized that it had all been rubbish as far as God was concerned. He said he wished that he had realized that when he had had it all.

He said, “I don’t get calls from the president of Pioneer nowadays; I don’t have his ear anymore—but I have the ear of God.” Leonard was a happy man.

CONCLUSION

Right now, some of you are thinking: If I ever was striving to become rich those times are past now.

My concern now is: will I have enough?

What if I have to go to assisted living?

What if I have to go to a nursing home? How could I ever pay for that?

To some people wealth means luxury.

For us, wealth means security.

But the problem with the craving for security is that you can never have enough to feel totally secure.

It would be sad to have so much money in the bank that you didn’t need to trust God.

How much to give, how much to keep is the issue we all need to think through. And the answer will be different for each of us.

The way we use our dwindling resources is something we need to pray about and decide before God.

Luke follows the Parable of the Rich Fool with teaching about anxiety.

Jesus says, “I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear” (v22).

Then he says, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (vv32-34).

The uncertainty in our lives gives us the incentive to trust God, to rest in him, to find our peace in him—and nowhere else.

One thing more—

There may be some here have been generous in times past but who now honestly have little beyond what is necessary to pay the bills.

I want to leave you with this thought:

Think back over your generosity in times past when you could (and did) do what you could.

Know that God remembers.

You have something that no one can ever take away from you.

You have treasure in heaven—and it is yours for ever.