Summer Stories - Week 3: The Rich Fool (Luke 12)
Jeff McGuinness · Summer Stories 2025
6 July 2025
https://media.glenabbey.church/talks/summer-stories-week-3-the-rich-fool-luke-12

[0:02] Speaker 1: Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
[0:09] Jesus replied, Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?
[0:15] Then he said to them, Watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed.
[0:20] Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.
[0:24] And he told them this parable, The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.
[0:31] He thought to himself, what shall I do?
[0:34] I have no place to store my crops.
[0:36] Then he said, this is what I'll do.
[0:39] I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones.
[0:42] And there I will store my surplus grain.
[0:45] And I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years.
[0:50] Take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry.
[0:54] But God said to him, you fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you.
[1:02] Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?
[1:05] This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich toward God.
[1:14] Thank you.
[1:14] Speaker 2: You can take that with me.
[1:28] Good morning.
[1:31] Thanks to Benji and the band and for all of the people behind the scenes that made this morning's service possible.
[1:38] We're continuing our summer series of stories Jesus told, looking at the parables in Luke.
[1:43] This morning, as you heard, we are turning our attention to the parable of the rich fool.
[1:48] And thank you very much to Ethan for reading that for us all.
[1:52] So we're just going to dive in.
[1:53] And I want us to start this morning by setting the scene.
[1:56] You'll know by now that here at Glen Abbey, we think it's incredibly important for us when we read the Bible to try and understand the context into which events happened, the context into which people were talking, stories were told, words were spoken.
[2:12] We do the word of God an injustice if we don't put ourselves into that scene, if we don't breathe the air of first century Israel as we consider the words of Jesus, who he spoke to, what was happening at the time.
[2:26] So we read that someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
[2:35] So we know that Jesus is in a crowd.
[2:38] Luke tells us earlier in the chapter that a huge crowd of thousands of people had gathered around to hear this rabbi who had earlier upset Pharisees and scribes with his teaching.
[2:49] But even though this crowd had gathered, Jesus was teaching his disciples.
[2:54] So he wasn't standing speaking to the crowd at this point.
[2:58] Presumably they were there waiting to hear from him, but he hadn't addressed them yet.
[3:04] And into the scene, a man, presumably tired of waiting, shouts out, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
[3:14] Luke is brief in his detail here.
[3:17] There's no background to the man or his family, no context into which we can grasp the particular issues surrounding this inheritance dispute.
[3:25] We know nothing of the way in which the inheritance was divided, or if it was divided at all.
[3:30] So this man may have been unfairly disadvantaged, or he may just feel aggrieved at a correctly divided inheritance.
[3:39] But regardless of that, and if scripture doesn't tell us we don't need to know, what we do know is that he assumed he was in the right, and he wanted Jesus to rule in his favor.
[3:52] He didn't say, Jesus, consider the facts and come to a fair conclusion.
[3:58] He makes a demand of Jesus and he says, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
[4:05] We know Jesus is not indifferent to injustice.
[4:09] And we know Jesus was never afraid to speak out against matters of unfairness.
[4:15] And yet his response is, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you.
[4:22] That is interesting.
[4:25] Jesus is judge over us and has every right to administer justice.
[4:30] But from this response, it is clear that Jesus does not get drawn into this.
[4:36] Here is the great I am saying in effect, I am not.
[4:41] I am not the arbiter you think I am.
[4:46] I wonder whether we are tempted to use Jesus in our own subtle ways to get what we want.
[4:52] And the most loving, the most important thing that Jesus can do for us is to say, I am not.
[5:00] I'm not here to obey your commands.
[5:02] I'm not here to fulfill your agenda.
[5:06] I'm not a justification for excluding others.
[5:10] I'm not a reason to condemn someone.
[5:13] I am not the stick that you use to beat others with.
[5:17] I'm not here to give you your desires.
[5:23] And sometimes that can be really hard to hear because we have legitimate desires.
[5:29] We pray for healing for others.
[5:31] I think of my mom.
[5:33] And yet Jesus says, I am not going to heal them.
[5:37] I am not taking them down that path.
[5:40] I will take their hand and I will walk with them.
[5:43] but in a different direction.
[5:45] And that is hard.
[5:46] We don't have time to expand on this this morning, but it might be something that you wish to reflect on.
[5:52] Where in your life do you need to hear Jesus say, I am not?
[5:57] In this instance, Jesus avoids being drawn into the dispute, but his response is more than saying, oh, sorry, there's a process to go through for you to follow, to get justice.
[6:07] It's not for me to be involved at this stage.
[6:11] No, verse 15 says, Then he said to them, Watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed.
[6:19] Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.
[6:23] So just note here that Jesus said this to them.
[6:27] So he's not just addressing the man who asked the question now.
[6:31] He's addressing the man, the crowd, his disciples, and ultimately you and me.
[6:37] because this is a warning for all of us.
[6:41] And I think we have to make a slight leap here.
[6:44] I think the text allows us to do that, but you must be the judge of that.
[6:48] You can't just rely on me saying that.
[6:52] So Jesus sees this man focused on what the man believes is his rightful inheritance.
[6:58] And because of what Jesus says to the crowd, I think Jesus sees in him presumably some evidence of greed, Some evidence that this man was deceived into thinking that if he had this money, that it could constitute a good life.
[7:12] Jesus sees, and I think the text backs it up, that this man is not really after justice.
[7:18] He's after money.
[7:20] And even if he has a totally legitimate case, it's masking a deeper issue of greed.
[7:27] I think that assumption makes the most sense when we see how Jesus addresses the crowd.
[7:32] Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.
[7:36] And Jesus is clear here.
[7:38] Watch out.
[7:39] Be on your guard.
[7:41] There is a danger here.
[7:43] There is a threat that we need to be aware of.
[7:48] When you're crossing a road and someone says, watch out, you don't think to yourself, do you know what?
[7:52] I'm going to go home later and I'm going to figure out what that person meant over a cup of teas and on my sofa.
[7:57] No, you act, you respond to the danger.
[8:03] Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.
[8:08] Jesus spoke on money a lot.
[8:10] After the kingdom of God, money and stewardship was his most taught on topic.
[8:16] That should tell us how important it was for Jesus that we should rightly understand the potential of money and the pitfalls that money can bring.
[8:27] In this encounter, Jesus is pointing to one of the pitfalls that money or inheritance or possessions or stuff can bring.
[8:37] Namely, that it can lie to us about how life can be complete if we just have that inheritance, if we just had those possessions if we just had that bit more.
[8:50] That kind of lie can awaken greed within us and ultimately lead to our ruin.
[8:56] You see, Jesus knows that what we point our money to indicates the direction of our hearts.
[9:04] Jesus at the end of the chapter will tell the people that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
[9:13] Jesus knows that our money is like a GPS for our heart.
[9:17] Our money can reflect the direction that we are truly heading.
[9:22] What we invest in, what we spend, points to the true north of our hearts.
[9:29] We can kid ourselves, and we do that a lot.
[9:34] But like a GPS, money logs our every turn, our every stop, every destination that we prioritize is recorded.
[9:43] Want to know more about your heart?
[9:46] Check out the root history that is revealed by your money.
[9:50] So Jesus knows the power that money has to lie to us, to distract us.
[9:56] That is why he refers to the deceitfulness of riches in Matthew chapter 13.
[10:02] Money and possessions can lie to us.
[10:07] They can trick us into thinking that the most significant thing about us, the primary way in which we measure how good our life is, is by how much we have.
[10:19] And to this Jesus says in verse 15, one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
[10:27] In other words, don't listen to that lie.
[10:31] Take care and be on your guard.
[10:35] Jesus is saying to this man, not only is this inheritance not your life, it could ruin your life, which is exactly what Paul said about the pitfall of money in 1 Timothy 6, 9.
[10:48] He says, those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
[11:01] Beware, be on your guard.
[11:05] And we kind of know this.
[11:08] We say things like, there's more to life than money.
[11:11] Money can't buy you happiness.
[11:14] But maybe deep down, we're not quite so sure that that's right.
[11:20] Because we're always being told by our culture, by every advert that you see, that things will make our life better.
[11:29] And so we can very easily slip into the world's way of thinking.
[11:35] So to help reinforce the message, Jesus told this parable.
[11:39] The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.
[11:43] He thought to himself, what shall I do?
[11:46] I have no place to store my crops.
[11:49] Then he said, this is what I'll do.
[11:51] I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones.
[11:54] And there I will store my surplus grain.
[11:58] And I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years.
[12:02] Take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry.
[12:07] But God said to him, you fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you.
[12:12] Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?
[12:15] This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich towards God.
[12:24] Let's make a few things very clear up front here.
[12:28] Jesus is not saying that it is a bad thing when your harvest is abundant.
[12:34] It is not a bad thing when your business prospers.
[12:37] It is not a bad thing to get a promotion or a pay increase.
[12:43] In the parable, the farmer is not called a fool for being productive.
[12:47] We need productive farmers.
[12:49] We need successful businesses.
[12:52] We need diligent people who work hard at their jobs and are paid accordingly.
[12:57] Why then is this man called a fool?
[13:01] We know this is the parable of the rich fool.
[13:03] The heading in the Bible has told us that before we even start to read the story.
[13:07] So we know he's a fool.
[13:08] And yet, and yet,
[13:14] if we are brutally honest with ourselves, we want that type of security.
[13:22] We aim for that type of security.
[13:26] We want to have enough to cover the rest of our lives.
[13:31] I was talking about pensions with a few people in my office the other day, and one of them said that they had read their pension statement and it worked out that they had enough money for the rest of their life, assuming that they die next Saturday.
[13:47] The man in this parable has worked hard.
[13:52] He's been prudent.
[13:53] He's planned.
[13:55] And yet God is saying he is a fool.
[14:00] We work hard.
[14:03] We are prudent.
[14:06] We plan.
[14:09] So we need to know what this man has got so profoundly wrong to avoid getting the very same thing wrong ourselves.
[14:18] So why was he a fool?
[14:19] Not only a fool, but a fool who's about to lose his very soul.
[14:25] So I think there are three things he was wrong about.
[14:28] He was wrong about a starting point.
[14:30] He was wrong about his journey time and he was wrong about his destination.
[14:35] He was wrong about his starting point.
[14:37] In verse 19, there's a few things going on there that shows us where he starts from and that his view of life is completely distorted.
[14:46] Verse 19 says, and I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years.
[14:51] Take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry.
[14:57] Continuing Gilbert's theme of light bulb jokes from a few weeks ago, how many rich fools does it take to change a light bulb?
[15:04] One, he just stands there and the world revolves around him.
[15:12] His starting position is that his life is all about him.
[15:16] His world revolves around him.
[15:20] Eight times in just a couple of sentences, we hear the words I or my.
[15:26] Jesus is clear.
[15:27] He wants us to see that this man is self-centered.
[15:31] He is good at thinking about himself, but not of others.
[15:35] He is good at acquiring riches, but the use that he plans to make of his wealth screams one thing.
[15:44] My treasure, my heart's desire is relaxing, eating, drinking, and having fun.
[15:51] That is my life.
[15:53] That is true north on my compass.
[15:56] The way in which I orientate my work and my riches point to that true north and make it possible.
[16:05] What's wrong with that?
[16:08] Nothing.
[16:10] If God is not on the throne and there is no resurrection.
[16:14] That's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians.
[16:16] He said, if the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink.
[16:19] For tomorrow we die.
[16:22] but God is on the throne.
[16:25] Jesus has been raised from the dead and each of us will bow the knee before him when he comes or calls.
[16:33] So we need to handle this parable really seriously.
[16:39] Aside from God, whatever it is that you're looking for in life, it might not be bigger barns or wealth, it might be family, it might be friendship, it might be relationship, it might be power, It might be success.
[16:51] Whatever it is, if we are greedy for it, it will train us to think that we are actually the center of our reality.
[16:59] And so the issue then becomes for us, have I got enough?
[17:04] Am I okay?
[17:06] And our starting position becomes distorted.
[17:10] He was wrong about his starting position.
[17:13] He was wrong about his journey time.
[17:16] This man thinks he has many years.
[17:20] but he did not.
[17:22] The truth is we don't know how long we have.
[17:26] Only God does.
[17:28] We can't presume we have many years ahead because we do not know.
[17:33] So if you're here this morning and you're thinking, I know I have to do business with God, whether that's in your relationship with him or something that he's pointing out to you in your heart, and you think, but you know what?
[17:46] That's for the future.
[17:48] Don't presume that you'll have the luxury of time.
[17:52] The man was wrong about his journey time.
[17:55] And he was wrong about his destination.
[17:58] What is wrong about this man's way of handling his riches is that he fails to use them in a way that shows his life was pointed at God.
[18:07] Jesus said this, the fact that his life was demanded, is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich toward God.
[18:17] The phrase rich toward God is an unusual one.
[18:21] This is the only place in the Bible where it is found.
[18:24] What does it mean to be rich towards God?
[18:28] We can probably have a good guess at that, but we want to tie it in with what the Bible says.
[18:33] And I think the meaning can be assumed from the contrast here.
[18:36] It is the opposite of storing up things for yourself.
[18:41] Being rich towards God is the opposite of acting as if life consists in the abundance of possessions.
[18:48] not in the abundance of knowing God.
[18:51] Being rich towards God, therefore, is the heart being drawn towards God as our riches.
[18:58] Rich towards God means reorientating our internal GPS so that we have God as our goal, making God true north on our compass.
[19:08] Rich towards God means counting God greater riches than anything else on earth.
[19:14] Rich towards God means, and don't miss this, using earthly riches to show how much you value God.
[19:25] This is what the prosperous farmer failed to do.
[19:28] And the result was that he was a fool and lost his soul.
[19:32] Again, the issue isn't that the man's fields prospered.
[19:37] The issue is that God ceased to be his treasure.
[19:41] If God had been his treasure, what would he have done differently?
[19:45] Instead of saying, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.
[19:49] Relax, eat, drink, be merry.
[19:51] He would have recognized God as the source of his blessings.
[19:56] God has given me this abundance.
[19:58] How can I honor him with it?
[20:01] He would have stored up treasure in heaven, caring for the poor, supporting God's work, investing in eternal things.
[20:10] He would have been generous, recognizing that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
[20:17] He would have said, God, show me how to express with my riches that you are my treasure and that riches are not.
[20:27] The application for us is clear.
[20:31] With our riches, do we express that God is our treasure and that riches are not?
[20:36] Are we rich towards God?
[20:39] And so we come to the end of the parable and we could stop there.
[20:43] This is a warning.
[20:44] It's a warning for the rich, for rich farmers and business owners, but actually it's not.
[20:51] And we can't stop there.
[20:53] Jesus doesn't allow us to stop there.
[20:57] Verse 22, Jesus goes on and he says, verse 22 says, Then Jesus said to his disciples, therefore, and in using the word therefore, he is hinging, he is connecting the parable that he has just told to what he is about to teach.
[21:12] He is making a link between the two.
[21:15] Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or about your body, what you will wear, for life is more than food and the body more than clothes.
[21:26] Consider the ravens.
[21:27] They do not sow or reap, yet they have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them.
[21:34] And how much more valuable you are than birds.
[21:38] Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?
[21:42] Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
[21:47] And he goes on to conclude his teaching by saying, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
[21:55] Jesus makes a connection between the parable he has just told and what he tells his disciples and the crowd about worry.
[22:03] And if he makes that connection, it's vital that we too look at why Jesus feels the parable has something more to say to the disciples, to the crowds, to ordinary men and women, to the poor and the lost, to you and to me.
[22:20] You see, I think Jesus wants us to know that there are two kinds of preoccupation with wealth and two kinds of potential fool.
[22:29] There is the rich fool that has wealth and is preoccupied with gathering more and satisfying their every desire.
[22:36] That generates greed and covetousness.
[22:39] But in connecting the parable with his teaching on worry, Jesus is also saying that there is another way to be fooled and that it's the place where the lack of money creates heart deep anxiety within us.
[22:55] We are preoccupied with what we don't have.
[22:59] And we can be a slave to that anxiety just as much as we can be a slave to greed.
[23:06] And Jesus gently teaches us here that it's not money that provides.
[23:11] It is the Lord that provides.
[23:13] It is not money that gives us security.
[23:15] It is God that gives us security.
[23:18] Whether it's things you have like the rich fool, or things you don't have, as Jesus taught afterwards, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
[23:29] What you value in life, like a gravitational force, will pull your heart into its orbit.
[23:37] If you value things, either the things you have or the things that you want, that will draw your heart in.
[23:46] You will invest your time and your energy and your money you value and your heart will follow.
[23:54] And we don't have infinite heart space.
[23:57] Your heart hasn't room for everything.
[24:01] So what captivates your heart?
[24:04] What is truly your heart's treasure?
[24:06] I want to conclude by suggesting a few things to ponder as your heart's treasure.
[24:13] Jesus is the treasure your soul was made for.
[24:17] He is the one who left heaven's glory to dwell among us.
[24:22] He bore your sins at the cross at Calvary.
[24:25] He took the punishment you deserved.
[24:27] He broke the chains of your addiction.
[24:29] He shattered the prison of your shame.
[24:31] He conquered death through his resurrection.
[24:34] He tore the veil, giving you access to the Father.
[24:37] He defeated every principality and power.
[24:40] He turns your mourning into dancing, your ashes into beauty, your despair into hope.
[24:46] Jesus is the one who satisfies the deepest longing of your heart.
[24:51] He is the lamb slain, the living water, the bread of life, the friend who sticks closer than a brother, the light that shatters darkness.
[25:00] Jesus is your hope.
[25:01] Jesus is your peace.
[25:03] Jesus is the joy that floods your soul in times of sorrow.
[25:07] Jesus is the strength when you have none left.
[25:10] He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the author and perfecter of your faith.
[25:17] He is the Lion of Judah who defends you, the Lamb of God who redeemed you.
[25:21] He is worthy of all your praise.
[25:23] He is the one who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
[25:27] He adopted you into God's family.
[25:29] He shared his inheritance with you.
[25:32] He seated you in heavenly places.
[25:34] He anointed you with his Holy Spirit.
[25:36] He gifted you with eternal life.
[25:39] He prepared good works for you to walk in.
[25:43] Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
[25:46] Jesus is your advocate who pleads your case before the throne.
[25:50] He will never leave you nor forsake you.
[25:53] He will prepare a place for you.
[25:55] He is coming back to take you home.
[25:58] He will wipe every tear from your eyes and he will make all things new.
[26:04] Jesus is your treasure.
[26:13] Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you, through his poverty, might become rich.
[26:26] Let's pray.
[26:32] Father, may Jesus be our treasure.
[26:37] may your spirit apply your scripture to our hearts may we reflect on your word may we be convicted by your spirit and may anything else melt away amen
[26:54] Thank you.