He who is not rich towards God
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NAME 정덕영 DATE06-02-17 14:10 VIEW3,417TIME COMMENT0CONTENT
He who is not rich towards God
[Luke 12:13-21]
13/ Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." 14/ Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 15/ Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."16/ And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17/ He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' 18/ "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19/ And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."' 20/ "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' 21/ "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God."
I sometimes ask them in the church “Who is Jesus?”
I ask them what He can do for them. This question may sound easy to answer but it is not. If any one of you can reply to it accurately based on your experiences, you have already been saved by Jesus.
Jesus comes to our lives, controls the old selves to come out and be processed, and then comes into us in the Spirit, through which each of us is born again as a new self. If that Jesus however fails to save you through this faith growing course, we can say that he is another Jesus or an idol Jesus. Conversely speaking, if you believe in Him but do not ask Him to save you through the course, you believe in the idol Jesus.
Most readers of you now reading this article think you are saved and born again by Him. You think it is natural to pray to Him to solve many problems you encounter in your lives, and you accordingly pray to Him to control division of inheritance with your elder brother as the younger one did in the today’s Bible verses. Jesus rebuked the younger brother, through which we will consider our faith. The younger brother represents you who mistakenly think “I am born again.”
Jesus who the crowd know of
[Luke 12:13-14]
13/ Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." 14/ Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?"
A man in the crowd came to Jesus and asked to tell his brother to divide the inheritance. We frequently find crowd around Jesus in the Bible. They always have a chance of making problems.
For example, they attempted to prevent two blind men’s access to Jesus by rebuking them to be quiet when they shouted to see him, and in another case, men brought a man in bed taken with a palsy so as to lay the man before Jesus but they found no way in, went upon the housetop, uncovered the roof, and let him down into the middle of the multitude in front of Jesus because of the crowd. The crowd staying around him hindered other persons from reaching Jesus. Therefore, if you desire to meet Jesus and be healed by Him, you must initially break the crowd who stands in the way.
Who are the crowd around Jesus? They represent those who come to church believing in Him, in the contemporary viewpoint. In other words, they decide to follow Him but do not know much about Him, have no intention of knowing Him, and only come and go near Him wanting to receive something expensive or valuable. Some one in the multitude may study Bible and join church activities in the eagerness of knowing more about Him. However, they still belong to the crowd because what they want is eventually the things belonging to the world.
They lead other persons who seek to find Jesus on the basis that they have known the Bible in advance to the seekers. Preachers in many churches proclaim Jesus, but not many preachers preach the true Jesus who leads us into being born again. If they fail to proclaim the true Jesus, they then obviously work as obstacles that is the crowds surrounding Jesus and prevent the seekers from seeing Him.
[Matt 23:13]
13/ Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
In the time of Jesus, the Pharisees and scribes taught the Israelites. However, since they did not know the true meaning of words, they could not be born again and enter the kingdom of heaven, and they taught others even though they were outside the kingdom of heaven, so that they prevented the other persons from entering the kingdom of heaven. They only kept on teaching and preventing others without knowing where they belonged.
What the crowd think of Jesus is a Jesus who allows them to enter the kingdom of heaven when they come to church, are faithful in all things, study the Bible, and join any of the church activities. They do not know what Jesus can truly do for them.
The younger brother in the text shows the features of the crowd. A man in the crowd came to Him with something to ask. The fact that the man came out of the crowd indicates that he represents the attribute of the crowd. What the man asked Jesus reveals what he thought of Jesus. The man wanted to solve the materialistic problem from Jesus. He thought of Jesus as a man who could bring riches.
This is what you generally think of Jesus. In your imagination, He blesses you, grants you to sit on the uppermost seats, makes you wealthy, and heals you. As a result, what you think of Him is what the younger brother thinks of Him, which proves that you belong to the crowd no matter whether you want it or not.
Real Jesus
Jesus told this younger one.
"Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?"
Jesus is not sent to give riches of this world.
Why do you then believe in Jesus? As the younger man did, you also think you need His blessing in making money and that He is life insurance while you live in this world. You naturally come to Jesus with those problems depending on your thoughts. Jesus will reply to you “Man, who made me help you in making it and getting along well in this world? My kingdom is not of this world.”
Jesus came to give eternal life through your being born again. However, you try to obtain riches, health, honor, and revival of churches other than being born again through Him.
Farmer and merchant of antiques
One day, a merchant of antiques was collecting valuable things in a village of the countryside. He visited from house to house and bought precious things. When dropping in at a house, he found in a house that a very precious antique vessel was used as a bowl for a dog in the yard. He instantly thought: ‘That antique is a very expensive bowl, but the farmer does not know its value and only uses it as a bowl for the dog. He will try to sell it expensively if I confess its value.
What do I have to do to buy it with a low price?’
He talked to the landlord with a trick.
“Hello, how much is the dog? It looks so cute. I want to buy it with a sufficient amount of money. The landlord happily accepted the merchant’s suggestion. “I will sell it right away with that price!”
The merchant bought the dog expensively, and said to him. “If you can additionally give me that old bowl, I’ll feed the dog. I’d appreciate if you give it to me for nothing.” The merchant tried to initially buy the dog with much cost and then have the bowl for nothing from the landlord by a trick. He simply thought that the farmer having no idea of antiques would give that bowl to him for free.
However, the landlord answered. “Give that bowl to you for nothing? Absolutely no! I sold many dogs expensively because of the bowl. How can you say that?”
The farmer was smarter than the merchant. He defeated many merchants having an eye on the bowl by displaying the antique bowl as a dog’s bowl on purpose. The merchant focused his attention on the dog’s bowl when trying to buy the dog.
When you are approaching Jesus, worshipping him, and attending Sunday services, aren’t you paying more attention to acquiring the riches in this world through Jesus than being born again through Him? Don’t you use your wisdom to take the riches from Him? If you do so, God will pay you back for it. The younger brother in the text approached Jesus with the same thought as that of the merchant, which is applied to all of you.
Jesus continues as follows.
Greed that Jesus points out
[Luke 12:15]
Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
Jesus said to the younger brother to be on the guard against all kinds of greed who asked him to help divide the inheritance. Actually, the younger one was deprived of his inheritance from the elder one. It seems right for the younger one to try to share the inheritance. According to the natural point of view, greedy is the elder guy and not the younger one. However, Jesus clearly said to the younger one to be on the guard against all kinds of greed.
You think greed is an unfair desire and tend to understand the words of Jesus in a like manner, and therefore, you define the desire of taking possessions as the younger brother did or the desire of having more of something than is given, to be the greed. As a result, you understand that Jesus exhorts no possession or gives a saying of having no interest in possessions.
It is another problem to be a man who is not interested in possessions even if you understood what he said. You can’t be. It is vain teaching, and can’t be teaching of Jesus.
If you want to understand the text correctly, you must understand the meaning of greed Jesus told. The ‘greed’ is not the one defined in the dictionary. The greed Jesus means is the mind of the younger brother who asked Him to help divide the inheritance.
The mind of you who think Jesus as a man of giving materialistic blessing of this world is the greed, which reveals what kind of Jesus you believe. If you say “I believe in Jesus,” but only try to receive blessing of possessions and live a convenient life, that mind is the greed.
You can believe in Jesus with the mind of greed as you wish. Further, most of you do so. You outwardly seem to believe in Him well because you trust in Him and pray to Him, but as a matter of fact, you greedily desire to receive what you want (things belonging to this world) from Him.
The definition of greed by Jesus is given in Colossians.
[Col 3:5]
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Idolatry is to believe in another God other than God and believe in another Jesus other than Jesus. Jesus gives us a born-again life, but if you believe in Him as a man of permitting blessing of worldly possessions, you believe in another Jesus and that is idolatry. The greed is the mind of believing in Jesus as a Jesus who gives materialistic blessing. Hence, greed is idolatry.
Then, what belief in Jesus is not greed?
It is the faith by which you meet Jesus in your lives and walk on the way to the born again state and the kingdom of God under the guidance of Him. This faith has no greed. Jesus came to process the old self, make you be born again and enter the kingdom of God. However, the younger brother did not desire to seek life from Jesus but sought the abundance of possessions. This man is the guy who believes in Jesus with greed.
What Jesus says to you is to be on your guard against all kinds of greed.
He who is not rich towards God
[Luke 12:20-21]
20/ "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' 21/ "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God."
Jesus says a parable after having said about ‘all kinds of greed’.
There was a certain rich man whose land yielded heavy crops, and who thought to himself
‘Take life easy, eat, and be merry,’ while building bigger storehouses. However, God says ‘You fool! This very night your soul will be required, and who will get the plenty of things you have provided?’
Jesus says so will be the man who lays up treasures for himself and is not rich towards God.
This parable is not given to those who spend money only for themselves and would not give gathering to God, and also it is not given to the elder brother who does not want to share the inheritance but desires to have it all. The parable in connection with the greed is given in order to correct the faith of the younger brother who thought of Jesus with greed.
Jesus says to the younger one through this parable.
“You want to have possessions of this world from me. It is very silly of you if you only try to get those possessions from me who have come to you to give eternal life.
The possessions will not mean to you if you die today even though you have earned money and desired to live a long life. What is more important to you is your life other than the possessions.
“God sent me to you so that He may give you life. He who is rich towards God is the one who knows the God’s will and seeks life from me. However, he who is not rich towards God and doesn’t want to know His will is the one who is only eager to acquire possessions from me.
Jesus says to you from the parable of the rich fool that life is above anything else in the world. Who don’t know life is important? We all know. However, your behavior shows that you seek to acquire possessions from Jesus. Only very few guys seek to believe in Him for the purpose of receiving life from Him, while most of others believe in Him for the purpose of making money because they think they are already saved and have life. They accordingly obey Jesus thanks to Him, and seek possessions from Him from time to time. It is fundamentally wrong faith.
Conclusion
You can be rich toward God if you can see our faith as it is. However, you believe in Him with greed since you have no idea of Him. May you see your faith as it is and be on your guard against all kinds of greed.
Chung DuckYoung
Pastor
FaSS Evangelists
http://www.fass.kr
[Luke 12:13-21]
13/ Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." 14/ Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 15/ Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."16/ And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17/ He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' 18/ "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19/ And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."' 20/ "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' 21/ "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God."
I sometimes ask them in the church “Who is Jesus?”
I ask them what He can do for them. This question may sound easy to answer but it is not. If any one of you can reply to it accurately based on your experiences, you have already been saved by Jesus.
Jesus comes to our lives, controls the old selves to come out and be processed, and then comes into us in the Spirit, through which each of us is born again as a new self. If that Jesus however fails to save you through this faith growing course, we can say that he is another Jesus or an idol Jesus. Conversely speaking, if you believe in Him but do not ask Him to save you through the course, you believe in the idol Jesus.
Most readers of you now reading this article think you are saved and born again by Him. You think it is natural to pray to Him to solve many problems you encounter in your lives, and you accordingly pray to Him to control division of inheritance with your elder brother as the younger one did in the today’s Bible verses. Jesus rebuked the younger brother, through which we will consider our faith. The younger brother represents you who mistakenly think “I am born again.”
Jesus who the crowd know of
[Luke 12:13-14]
13/ Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." 14/ Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?"
A man in the crowd came to Jesus and asked to tell his brother to divide the inheritance. We frequently find crowd around Jesus in the Bible. They always have a chance of making problems.
For example, they attempted to prevent two blind men’s access to Jesus by rebuking them to be quiet when they shouted to see him, and in another case, men brought a man in bed taken with a palsy so as to lay the man before Jesus but they found no way in, went upon the housetop, uncovered the roof, and let him down into the middle of the multitude in front of Jesus because of the crowd. The crowd staying around him hindered other persons from reaching Jesus. Therefore, if you desire to meet Jesus and be healed by Him, you must initially break the crowd who stands in the way.
Who are the crowd around Jesus? They represent those who come to church believing in Him, in the contemporary viewpoint. In other words, they decide to follow Him but do not know much about Him, have no intention of knowing Him, and only come and go near Him wanting to receive something expensive or valuable. Some one in the multitude may study Bible and join church activities in the eagerness of knowing more about Him. However, they still belong to the crowd because what they want is eventually the things belonging to the world.
They lead other persons who seek to find Jesus on the basis that they have known the Bible in advance to the seekers. Preachers in many churches proclaim Jesus, but not many preachers preach the true Jesus who leads us into being born again. If they fail to proclaim the true Jesus, they then obviously work as obstacles that is the crowds surrounding Jesus and prevent the seekers from seeing Him.
[Matt 23:13]
13/ Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
In the time of Jesus, the Pharisees and scribes taught the Israelites. However, since they did not know the true meaning of words, they could not be born again and enter the kingdom of heaven, and they taught others even though they were outside the kingdom of heaven, so that they prevented the other persons from entering the kingdom of heaven. They only kept on teaching and preventing others without knowing where they belonged.
What the crowd think of Jesus is a Jesus who allows them to enter the kingdom of heaven when they come to church, are faithful in all things, study the Bible, and join any of the church activities. They do not know what Jesus can truly do for them.
The younger brother in the text shows the features of the crowd. A man in the crowd came to Him with something to ask. The fact that the man came out of the crowd indicates that he represents the attribute of the crowd. What the man asked Jesus reveals what he thought of Jesus. The man wanted to solve the materialistic problem from Jesus. He thought of Jesus as a man who could bring riches.
This is what you generally think of Jesus. In your imagination, He blesses you, grants you to sit on the uppermost seats, makes you wealthy, and heals you. As a result, what you think of Him is what the younger brother thinks of Him, which proves that you belong to the crowd no matter whether you want it or not.
Real Jesus
Jesus told this younger one.
"Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?"
Jesus is not sent to give riches of this world.
Why do you then believe in Jesus? As the younger man did, you also think you need His blessing in making money and that He is life insurance while you live in this world. You naturally come to Jesus with those problems depending on your thoughts. Jesus will reply to you “Man, who made me help you in making it and getting along well in this world? My kingdom is not of this world.”
Jesus came to give eternal life through your being born again. However, you try to obtain riches, health, honor, and revival of churches other than being born again through Him.
Farmer and merchant of antiques
One day, a merchant of antiques was collecting valuable things in a village of the countryside. He visited from house to house and bought precious things. When dropping in at a house, he found in a house that a very precious antique vessel was used as a bowl for a dog in the yard. He instantly thought: ‘That antique is a very expensive bowl, but the farmer does not know its value and only uses it as a bowl for the dog. He will try to sell it expensively if I confess its value.
What do I have to do to buy it with a low price?’
He talked to the landlord with a trick.
“Hello, how much is the dog? It looks so cute. I want to buy it with a sufficient amount of money. The landlord happily accepted the merchant’s suggestion. “I will sell it right away with that price!”
The merchant bought the dog expensively, and said to him. “If you can additionally give me that old bowl, I’ll feed the dog. I’d appreciate if you give it to me for nothing.” The merchant tried to initially buy the dog with much cost and then have the bowl for nothing from the landlord by a trick. He simply thought that the farmer having no idea of antiques would give that bowl to him for free.
However, the landlord answered. “Give that bowl to you for nothing? Absolutely no! I sold many dogs expensively because of the bowl. How can you say that?”
The farmer was smarter than the merchant. He defeated many merchants having an eye on the bowl by displaying the antique bowl as a dog’s bowl on purpose. The merchant focused his attention on the dog’s bowl when trying to buy the dog.
When you are approaching Jesus, worshipping him, and attending Sunday services, aren’t you paying more attention to acquiring the riches in this world through Jesus than being born again through Him? Don’t you use your wisdom to take the riches from Him? If you do so, God will pay you back for it. The younger brother in the text approached Jesus with the same thought as that of the merchant, which is applied to all of you.
Jesus continues as follows.
Greed that Jesus points out
[Luke 12:15]
Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
Jesus said to the younger brother to be on the guard against all kinds of greed who asked him to help divide the inheritance. Actually, the younger one was deprived of his inheritance from the elder one. It seems right for the younger one to try to share the inheritance. According to the natural point of view, greedy is the elder guy and not the younger one. However, Jesus clearly said to the younger one to be on the guard against all kinds of greed.
You think greed is an unfair desire and tend to understand the words of Jesus in a like manner, and therefore, you define the desire of taking possessions as the younger brother did or the desire of having more of something than is given, to be the greed. As a result, you understand that Jesus exhorts no possession or gives a saying of having no interest in possessions.
It is another problem to be a man who is not interested in possessions even if you understood what he said. You can’t be. It is vain teaching, and can’t be teaching of Jesus.
If you want to understand the text correctly, you must understand the meaning of greed Jesus told. The ‘greed’ is not the one defined in the dictionary. The greed Jesus means is the mind of the younger brother who asked Him to help divide the inheritance.
The mind of you who think Jesus as a man of giving materialistic blessing of this world is the greed, which reveals what kind of Jesus you believe. If you say “I believe in Jesus,” but only try to receive blessing of possessions and live a convenient life, that mind is the greed.
You can believe in Jesus with the mind of greed as you wish. Further, most of you do so. You outwardly seem to believe in Him well because you trust in Him and pray to Him, but as a matter of fact, you greedily desire to receive what you want (things belonging to this world) from Him.
The definition of greed by Jesus is given in Colossians.
[Col 3:5]
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Idolatry is to believe in another God other than God and believe in another Jesus other than Jesus. Jesus gives us a born-again life, but if you believe in Him as a man of permitting blessing of worldly possessions, you believe in another Jesus and that is idolatry. The greed is the mind of believing in Jesus as a Jesus who gives materialistic blessing. Hence, greed is idolatry.
Then, what belief in Jesus is not greed?
It is the faith by which you meet Jesus in your lives and walk on the way to the born again state and the kingdom of God under the guidance of Him. This faith has no greed. Jesus came to process the old self, make you be born again and enter the kingdom of God. However, the younger brother did not desire to seek life from Jesus but sought the abundance of possessions. This man is the guy who believes in Jesus with greed.
What Jesus says to you is to be on your guard against all kinds of greed.
He who is not rich towards God
[Luke 12:20-21]
20/ "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' 21/ "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God."
Jesus says a parable after having said about ‘all kinds of greed’.
There was a certain rich man whose land yielded heavy crops, and who thought to himself
‘Take life easy, eat, and be merry,’ while building bigger storehouses. However, God says ‘You fool! This very night your soul will be required, and who will get the plenty of things you have provided?’
Jesus says so will be the man who lays up treasures for himself and is not rich towards God.
This parable is not given to those who spend money only for themselves and would not give gathering to God, and also it is not given to the elder brother who does not want to share the inheritance but desires to have it all. The parable in connection with the greed is given in order to correct the faith of the younger brother who thought of Jesus with greed.
Jesus says to the younger one through this parable.
“You want to have possessions of this world from me. It is very silly of you if you only try to get those possessions from me who have come to you to give eternal life.
The possessions will not mean to you if you die today even though you have earned money and desired to live a long life. What is more important to you is your life other than the possessions.
“God sent me to you so that He may give you life. He who is rich towards God is the one who knows the God’s will and seeks life from me. However, he who is not rich towards God and doesn’t want to know His will is the one who is only eager to acquire possessions from me.
Jesus says to you from the parable of the rich fool that life is above anything else in the world. Who don’t know life is important? We all know. However, your behavior shows that you seek to acquire possessions from Jesus. Only very few guys seek to believe in Him for the purpose of receiving life from Him, while most of others believe in Him for the purpose of making money because they think they are already saved and have life. They accordingly obey Jesus thanks to Him, and seek possessions from Him from time to time. It is fundamentally wrong faith.
Conclusion
You can be rich toward God if you can see our faith as it is. However, you believe in Him with greed since you have no idea of Him. May you see your faith as it is and be on your guard against all kinds of greed.
Chung DuckYoung
Pastor
FaSS Evangelists
http://www.fass.kr
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