Sermon Tone Analysis

“Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’

But he said to him, ‘Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?’

And he said to them, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’

And he told them a parable, saying, ‘The land of a rich man produced 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 tear down my barns and build 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; relax, 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 the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.’” [1]

Success looms large in our estimate; but how do you define success?

Most of us would likely consider an individual successful if she held a large portfolio or if he enjoyed a large income.

Perhaps we consider the individual who enjoys popularity to be successful; but even in that instance we usually assume that popularity equates to wealth.

Measures of success vary, but usually we think of people who are well-known, easily recognised and especially people who are independently wealthy as those who are successful.

However, we who are Christians should ask what the measure of success is in the Kingdom of God.

In order to discover God’s criterion for success we must consult the Creator.

He made us.

Since by His mercies we live or die, ultimately, success depends upon His estimate and not upon what we might think.

To discover God’s measure of success, I invite you to consider a pericope found in Luke’s account of the ministry of Jesus.

Jesus related a parable illustrating precisely what is important in the divine economy.

Jesus had been engaged in conflict with the Pharisees and Lawyers.

He had stripped away the thin veneer hiding the corruption of their souls.

Enraged, the religious leaders were hoping to catch Him in some verbal faux pas so they could at the least embarrass Him before His followers.

Jesus, however, refused to play their game.

He warned His disciples to watch out for the traps such religious leaders would lay, cautioning them that the secrets of the heart will at last be revealed.

Consequently, those who will live fearlessly must fear God supremely.

“The fear of man lays a snare” [PROVERBS 29:25] remains an excellent warning.

Jesus expanded this warning, encouraging all who profess His Name to consider carefully their actions and their words.

Jesus said, “I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say” [LUKE 12:8-12].

You might think that someone hearing these words would soberly consider the implications for his or her own life.

However, Jesus had not even finished speaking when one of his listeners interrupted complaining that the division of the family inheritance was unjust.

In fact, the individual pleaded with Jesus to intervene, compelling the brother who had apparently received the larger portion to redress the supposed error.

Jesus brought the man up short, confronting him with a pointed question.

“Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” Jesus did not come to judge earthly issues.

The things of this earth must perish with their use.

Consequently, wealth and efforts to accumulate wealth must ultimately perish.

Money is simply a tool.

Money itself is neutral, taking on character only as it is either employed to the glory of God, the betterment of the individual or as it is misused through being consumed on our desires.

Jesus did not come to engage in mere material matters, but rather He came to bring salvation.

Note VERSE FIFTEEN, “…He said to them.”

Who is “them?”

I suppose it would be natural to conclude that Jesus turned His attention to the disciples, or even more naturally that He turned His attention to the crowd.

However, I am certain that Jesus addressed the man who had cried out for judgement and the brother.

Regardless of who was addressed, Jesus’ words will forever serve as a warning against greed.

“Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

This warning, likely addressed to the two combatants, was heard by all that were present on that day.

Jesus’ warning serves to this day as a basis for instruction for all who will listen.

Focus on the parable Jesus told in order to discover God’s measure of success.

*MAN’S MEASURE OF SUCCESS* — “The land of a rich man produced 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 tear down my barns and build 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; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’”

I asked at the beginning of the message what you might consider the measure of success.

For the most of our world—and I fear that I must include professing Christians in this number—success is measured by tangible criteria destined to perish with this world.

For instance, we consider the well-known person to be successful.

Whether they are recognised because of athletic ability or because of musical ability or simply because they are well proportioned and beautiful, we think of such people as successful.

An entire movement in the reality television industry has been formed around this aspect of success.

Today, we watch “American Idol,” “Canadian Idol,” “Action Hero,” “Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire,” and the list seems to go on ad infinitum.

All these shows revolve around voice or looks and the winners are provided opportunities to be “successful.”

We consider an individual who possesses wealth to be a successful person.

Some people are thought successful even though they have done nothing to enrich themselves other than being born into the right family.

It is amazing what a large inheritance will do for one’s image of success!

However, we rightly admire the entrepreneurial abilities of individuals such as Warren Buffet or Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.

Each parlayed the ability to invest wisely or to develop and market either software or hardware, turning their abilities into fortunes beyond belief for the average person.

Mark Zukerberg, Pierre Omidyar and Jeff Bezos each turned an idea into a fortune.

Anyone who has heard of Facebook or EBay or Amazon Books recognises that these men are considered successful by the vast majority of people who know of their enterprise.

In our text, Jesus relates a story about a man whom the hearers would have immediately considered to have been wildly successful.

For a moment, think about another man who lived much later than Jesus in the days of His flesh.

Clarence Jordan was a pioneer in the realm of race relations in the southern United States.

He earned a Ph.D. in New Testament Greek from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and could no doubt have pastored any of a number of great churches in the South, yet he braved violence and legal and economic reprisals to found Koinonia Farm, an interracial farming community in the deep South.

One thing Jordan did in his far too short life was to translate almost the entire New Testament into the vernacular of the South.

That “translation”—the Cotton Patch Version of the Bible—reset the Bible into the Twentieth Century South, forcing an entire culture to look at itself through the divine mirror of the Word.

I want to read a portion of today’s text from Jordan’s Cotton Patch Version of Luke.

“Somebody in the crowd said to [Jesus], ‘Preacher, speak to my brother about dividing the inheritance with me.’

“Jesus said to him, ‘Say, fellow, who appointed me as a judge or arbitrator between you two?’

“Then he said to them, ‘You all be careful and stay on your guard against all kinds of greediness.

For a person’s life is not for the piling up of possessions.’

“He then gave them a Comparison: ‘A certain rich fellow’s farm produced well.

And he held a meeting with himself and he said, “What shall I do?

I don’t have room enough to store my crops.”

Then he said, “Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll tear down my old barns and build some bigger ones in which I’ll store all my wheat and produce.

And I will say to myself, ‘Self, you’ve got enough stuff stashed away to do you a long time.

Recline, dine, wine, and shine!’”’” [2]

I suppose that to our mind the essence of success is recline, dine, wine and shine.

Success is measured by our ability to engage in leisure and to exercise power.

In short, success is measured by the ability to do whatever one may wish to do.

However, if this truly is the measure of success, one must wonder why we settle for so little and why “success” fails to bring satisfaction.

Here is what I mean.

When we have set a goal and at last attained that goal, or when we have laboured toward a particular achievement or sought to attain a particular position, it is almost inevitable that we discover that our achievement, our attainment fails to satisfy.

What we at first consider to be the one thing that will surely give us the greatest pleasure so very often leaves us empty and desolate at the last.

The promise is greater than the performance.

That is because the things associated with this life can never satisfy permanently.

Since all that is associated with this life is temporary, the accoutrements of this life are similarly temporary and the satisfactions of this life are transient and ephemeral.

Family members were unable to understand my reluctance to attend graduation ceremonies following completion of doctoral studies.

To me, the ceremony seemed a meaningless act.

It seemed vapid, illusory, pointless, hollow.

The investigations were complete and the appropriate conclusions already drawn.

Now life loomed large before me.

The ceremonies were something like strawberries without the berries—all that remained was the straw.

I had no desire to participate in the ceremonies and hear hollow platitudes about what an accomplishment the studies had proven to be.