Luke 16 – Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Luke 16:1-9: Parable of the wise manager 

A. Find Out:    

1. Of what was the manager accused? v.1
   • Jesus told his disciples: ‘There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions.
2. So what did the rich man do about him? v.2
   • So he called him in and asked him, “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.”
3. What did the manager determine to do? v.3,4
   •  ‘The manager said to himself, “What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg – 4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.”
4. What happened with the first debtor? v,5,6
   • ‘So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” 6 ‘“Three thousand litres of olive oil,” he replied. ‘The manager told him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifteen hundred.”
5. What happened with the second debtor? v,7
   •  ‘Then he asked the second, “And how much do you owe?” ‘“Thirty tons of wheat,” he replied. ‘He told him, “Take your bill and make it twenty-four.”
6. Why was the manager commended? v.8
   • ‘The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.
7. What did Jesus then teach? v.9
   • I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

B. Think:

1. How would you describe how the manager acted?
2. What do you think Jesus meant by his teaching?

C. Comment:

This is a strange parable in that it is about dishonesty and shrewdness which was commended. Let’s look at the story first then the teaching. To start with the manager has been dishonest, has been found out and is about to be dismissed. In the light of this he makes his plans, to ensure he will be well thought of by the people of the district who will then act favourably towards him once he’s lost his job. He does this by reducing all of their debts, and for this shrewdness he is commended.

Before we say any more about him let’s look at Jesus’ teaching. Use your money, he says, to gain friends. That sounds strange. What does he mean? Well the manager in the story blessed people financially so whatever his motive the people felt good about him. Similarly, says Jesus, instead of letting your money just sit there, do something with it and the something you do, do it to create a good feeling in the community.

The reality is that when you do spend money on other people they do feel good towards you and you are, putting aside your motive, doing good towards others. It may be that by so doing you will open up their hearts to you and will listen to you and find the Lord. That means that you have used your money in such a way that the end product is people entering the kingdom of God. What a much better use of your wealth!

D. Application:

1. Money for My Use? Do I use my money purely for selfish ends? Do I use it purely to bless me?  Have i caught the idea that I could use my money for other than me?
2. Money to bless others? How can I use my money to bless others? Have I caught the idea that my life can be used to bless others, including the way I spend my money?

Passage: Luke 16:10-15: Further teaching  

A. Find Out:    

1. What principle does Jesus lay down? v.10
   •  ‘Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
2. What question does he then ask? v.11
   • So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
3. What follow-up question does he ask? v.12
   • And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
4. What principles does he then lay down? v.13
   •  ‘No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.’
5. How did the Pharisees respond to all this? v.14
   • The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.
6. How did he chide them? v.15
   • He said to them, ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.

B. Think:

1. What principles for use of material things does Jesus lay down?
2. How does Jesus then link material and spiritual in these verses?
3. How would you summarise what he is saying?

C. Comment:

Jesus, remember, has just told a parable about wise use of possessions and has then taught use your money to bless others. Now he says (implied) if you only have a little that doesn’t matter – how you handle a little indicates how you could handle a lot.

But, some might be thinking, surely it doesn’t matter in a spiritual kingdom how you handle material things. Oh no, says Jesus, how you handle material things is an indication of your spiritual state, so if you handle your possessions badly God won’t trust you with spiritual things. If you’ve always been serving someone else – and that not well – what makes you think you’ll get to handle your own property well? No, he continues, you will focus on one or the other – material prosperity or spiritual blessing, not both. You either serve money OR God, not both! So, make up your minds, who will you serve?

At that, the Pharisees who liked being well off, started to deride Jesus. This brought a stern rebuke from Jesus – you try to look good before men but God knows what you’re really like, and you’ve got wrong values! What you value highly – money and possession, pride and status – counts for nothing with God. In the materialistic twenty first century, these words come as a strong corrective – get a right balance – ensure you make God your goal, not money!

D. Application:

1. God or Money Making: What have I made my priority in life, making money or serving God?  Do I let my relationship with the Lord affect the way I handle my money?
2. A good all-round steward? Am I a good steward spiritually AND materially?

Passage: Luke 16:16-18: Yet more teaching

A. Find Out:

1. What were proclaimed until when? v.16a
   • The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John.
2. What has been preached since? v.16b
   • Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached
3. And what were people doing? v.16c
   • and everyone is forcing their way into it.
4. What is easier than what? v.17
   •  It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.
5. Who commits adultery? v.18
   • ‘Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

B. Think:

1. How was John a turning point in spiritual affairs?
2. What do you think Jesus was saying in verse 17?
3. Why do you think verse 18’s contents come here?

C. Comment:

Remember that Jesus has just been addressing the hostile Pharisees and chiding them. They of course, saw themselves as upholders of the Law and so Jesus now speaks about the Law in words that are not easy to understand.

First of all he points out that the ‘Law and the prophets’ (how the Jews tended to summarise the Old Testament) had been proclaimed up until the coming of John the Baptist. After John, Jesus himself had come and now was preaching the good news that God’s rule had come on the earth, and so the living expression of God rather than His word was there for them. In fact so much had the rule of God been seen, that multitudes had been rushing to be part of it and have the rule of God free them from the power of Satan.

However, he continues, the Law is still relevant, it’s still essential as the expression of God’s will, and to justify that he cites the ‘law’ on divorce. A Jewish husband had only to declare his divorce and it was so, and if he went and married another woman that was adultery because he was simply manipulating the law to follow his desires. The intent of this law was to release a man when his wife had been unfaithful, not to allow him to be adulterous. No, the Law and the reign of God existed side by side. The Law laid down life guidelines and the power of God brought freedom that the Law couldn’t do.

D. Application:

1. Do we realise God’s guidelines for life are still for us?
2. Yet do we allow the power of the Spirit to energise and direct us?

Passage: Luke 16:19-31: The rich man and Lazarus

A. Find Out:

1. Who were the two people in Jesus’ story v.19-21
   • ‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
2. What happened to them both & where did they end up? v.22,23
   • ‘The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
3. What did the rich man ask? v.24
   • So he called to him, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.”
4. What reply did he get? v.25,26
   • ‘But Abraham replied, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.”
5. What further did he ask? v.27,28,30
   • ‘He answered, “Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.” …  ‘“No, father Abraham,” he said, “but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.”
6. What reply did he get to this? v.29,31 
   • ‘Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.” … ‘He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”’

B. Think:

1. What is the main teaching here using Lazarus & the rich man?
2. What teaching is there also about belief?
3. What was there in the warning Jesus was giving?

C. Comment: 

This is a very powerful story, sharp and clear in its message. There are two people: one an uncaring rich man and the other a beggar named Lazarus. They both die and the rich man goes to hell and the poor man to heaven (the Jews imagined Abraham, the father of the race, being heaven’s door keeper).

Note in what follows the things we learn about hell:

First that it is a place or torment. This is something that comes out in Jesus’ teaching quite often.

Second, that once you are there that there is no possibility of being redeemed. Hence any praying for the dead will not have the effect of saving them.

Third there is a direct correlation between how we live on this earth and where we will end up.     The second part of the story that Jesus tells is actually a challenge to unbelief today. The rich man asks for his family to be warned but he’s told that they have the Old Testament to warn and guide them. He asks for someone they know to go back and warn them but Jesus says through the story that if they won’t believe the Scriptures, they won’t be convinced by someone coming back from the dead.

This story is obviously a strong warning about belief and their future destiny and within it is the subtle hint that these Pharisees who had been challenging him won’t believe even when he is raised from the dead.

D. Application:

1. Are we clear on our eternal destiny. The Scripture is clear on it.
2. No excuses for anyone, we have been given plenty to believe.