THE PARABLE OF THE RICH FOOL
DR. JIM DIXON
MAY 16, 2010
GENESIS 3:16
“You’ve heard it said of old, “Thou shall not kill. Whoever kills will be liable for judgment.’ But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother shall be liable for judgment. Whoever insults his brother, calling him ‘raca,’ shall be liable to the Sanhedrin. And whoever says to his brother, ‘You fool!’ shall be liable for hellfire.” Now, those are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, taken from the Sermon on the Mount. Clearly our Lord does not want us to call each other fools, but there are people in this world who in the sight of God are fools. That’s what our parable is about today: the parable of the rich fool. In the sight of God, some are foolish.
What I’d like to do as we look at this parable is give three brief teachings. And the first is this: the day will come when your soul will be required of you. That’s what Jesus tells us in this parable. If we don’t know that, if we don’t prepare for that, we’re fools. Now, in Daniel chapter five, there’s a powerful passage of scripture and one of my favorites. It’s the story of Belshazzar, king of the Babylonian Empire, and his final days. Now of course, some secular historians and scholars have said the Bible is wrong here, because Belshazzar was never king of the Babylonian empire. They say that this passage of scripture, therefore, is in error. But recent research has proven that Belshazzar was crown prince and acting king because his father Nabonidus had gone on a 10-year campaign, which took him to other lands. So Belshazzar the crown prince, was functioning king, and the Bible is exactly right.
Now, there came a day when Belshazzar thought that he would throw a great banquet, a party, for a thousand of his lords. It would be a time to eat and to drink and to make merry. It would be a time of Babylonian excess. It would be a time of drunkenness. It would be an orgy. He thought to himself, I’m in a wild mood and kind of a sacrilegious mood. I think I’ll command that the sacred vessels taken by our armies from the city of Jerusalem be brought to the banquet hall and be used for drunkenness. So the party went on and the vessels were desecrated.
Before the night was done, the judgment of God came. You know the story. The handwriting was on the wall, for the Babylonian King Belshazzar saw the hand of God, a divine hand, write three words on the wall of the banquet hall: “Mene, Tekel, Parsin.” The king was confused. These were ancient words. Perhaps he knew that they were used of monetary units. He might’ve looked at them as like “penny, nickel, dime”—“Mene, Tekel, Parsin.” But he didn’t know the deeper meaning. He was confused. He didn’t know the etymology of these words.
He called on Daniel, prophet of God, taken captive from Israel and counselor to the royal court. He called upon him for interpretation, and Daniel gave interpretation. He knew the deeper meaning of these words. Mene—the etymology of which means numbered. Thus sayeth the Lord: your days are numbered. Tekel, in terms of its etymology, means weighed. Thus sayeth the Lord: you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Parsin, in its etymology, means divided. Thus sayeth the Lord to you: tonight your kingdom will fall. It will be divided and it will be given into the hands of the Medes and the Persians. So the judgment of God came that very night. Mene, Tekel, Parsin—numbered, weighed, divided. History shows that Cyrus the great and the armies of Medo-Persia swept over the royal city of Babylon that night and Belshazzar fell.
I hope you understand that I am like Belshazzar. I hope you understand that you are like Belshazzar. I hope you understand that judgment day will come. There will come a day when our soul will be required of us. I understand that I am like Belshazzar in every way because my days are numbered. I’m 64 years old. Next month I’ll be 64 and a half, but who’s counting? The months are just racing by. The days are just racing by. I don’t know the number of my days. I don’t know whether I’ll live to be 65. I don’t know whether I’ll live to be a hundred, but my days are numbered. And I can tell you that my righteousness is as filthy rags. I can promise you that I have no righteousness of my own, and apart from Jesus Christ I would be weighed in the balances and found wanting, just like Belshazzar, were His righteousness not imputed to me. I would be weighed and found wanting and everything that I have surely will be divided. I promise you I don’t have much, but what I have is going to be divided and given over.
You know, when my mom and dad passed, my brothers and I and our wives went out to California and went through the house to clean things up. We went through the garage, ashelf after shelf, every closet in the house, shelf after shelf, all the drawers of all the desk and all the drawers and in all the cabinets and in the kitchen and everything we found, we said to each other, “What were mom and dad thinking? Why in the world did they keep all this stuff?” And Barbara and I laugh because we go down into our basement, our storage area, and we just laugh because our stuff there we have that we’ve not looked at in years and we’ll never open. I mean, we’ll die before we’ll open those things. Here’s what’s going to happen. Our kids Drew and Heather and Chris are going to come over. They’re going to start going through stuff. What a burden. They’re going to come over and they’re going to say, what in the world were mom and dad thinking? It’s all going to be divided. It’s like James Dobson said. It’s like a monopoly game. When it’s done, it all goes back in the box. You don’t take anything with you.
The day’s coming when judgment will happen. The Bible mentions three judgments: the Bema Seat, the judgment of the church, the judgment of the people of Christ when we will receive our varying rewards; and the judgment of the nations, as mentioned by Christ in the Olivet discourse. When He comes again, at His second coming, He will judge the nations. He will judge those living on the earth. And then finally, at the end of Revelation, the great white throne judgment at the end of the millennium, which is the judgment of the living and the dead. But all will be judged. You might look at this world and you might think, wow, people are sure getting away with stuff. You might be thinking that people in high places or low places are getting away with things. Nobody’s getting away with anything.
God is judge. Accountability is built into history. It will happen. God will judge the living and the dead. He will judge kingdoms and nations and those who sit on thrones. He’ll judge oppressors and He’ll also judge the oppressed and He’ll judge us. So we’re fools if we don’t know that the day will come when our soul will be required of us. And the question is, have you secured your soul? I secured my soul when I was five. I think many of you know, surely, that I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. I did that with my mom in the living room of our home in California. I asked Jesus to forgive me of my sin. I thanked Him for dying on the cross for me, and I asked Him to be my Savior. I also received Him as my Lord at five years old. I pledged myself to Him that I would seek to live for Him all the days of my life. And I want to live my life in anticipation of the day that I will stand before Him, because I will stand before Him like all must. I want to live my life in preparation for that and with awareness of that. I don’t want to be a fool.
The second teaching this morning is that your life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions. It’s what Jesus clearly taught in conjunction with this parable. This man was a fool because he thought his life, his worth, his significance, his value was somehow tied to the abundance of his possessions. And we’re fools if we think like that. Of course, we live in a culture where millions and millions of people think like that. And unfortunately, one of the great tragedies of the church of Christ in the 21st century is that so many of those who claim to follow Jesus think the same way, that somehow our worth is tied to our possessions.
Our son Drew is back in Madison, Wisconsin, where he is studying at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in a fellowship that he might be a retina surgeon. We look forward to when he can return here to Denver. Drew loves lacrosse. He’s always loved the sport of lacrosse. He loves it still. He played lacrosse when he was in high school and he played lacrosse when he was in college. He became a pretty good lacrosse player, and he won all New England student athlete of the year in lacrosse. Before he went to college, Barb and I went with Drew to a number of colleges and universities that were known for their lacrosse program because of Drew’s interest. We went to Princeton University in New Jersey where Bill Tierney was the coach of Princeton. Bill Tierney is now the coach right here at DU. They made the NCAA tournament, but they lost last night.
But we went and interviewed with Bill Tierney, and that was an elite program. Coach Tierney had led Princeton to national championships. It was really honestly too elite for Drew’s skills at that time. We went down to UVA, the University of Virginia, where the coach of the lacrosse team is Dom Starsia, a wonderful guy. And Dom Starsia has led UVA to many national championships. We interviewed with him and Dom Starsia treated Drew so wonderfully. As a dad, you’d like a coach to treat your son like him. He laughed and he told us funny stories about DVDs and videos that prospective lacrosse players send to him wanting to be on the team and how they show themselves running down the field and in the background the music of Chariots of Fire or maybe the theme from Rocky or the theme from Star Wars plays. These are the kind of productions that students send in wanting to join the team. Dom Starsia was really a fun guy. I don’t know that he’s laughing now though. It’s true that hiis men’s lacrosse team is in the NCAA tournament and they played last night, and I don’t know what happened. But I do know that the whole community at UVA is in shock. I think most of you know that one of Dom Starsia lacrosse players allegedly murdered a girl lacrosse player at UVA. The whole campus, the whole school, is in shock.
Thomas Jefferson, founder of the school and one of our nation’s founders would’ve been stunned to even imagine that such a thing could happen in that culture and school. And you see in the newspapers and on the news the responses of people and students at UVA and it just says that suddenly all their values have changed. This has just shaken them at the core of their being. They say that suddenly lacrosse doesn’t seem so important anymore. The world of sports doesn’t seem that important anymore. Suddenly they kind of have a different view of the world and relative values.
I think that was true for all of us in the aftermath of 9/11. I think after 9/11, everyone was in shock. I think we all rethought our worldview, our values. A lot of people decided that maybe their soul was kind of important. In the weeks following 9/11, you saw millions of Americans go to church who had not been to church in years, and many who had not been to church in their lifetime. Suddenly their world was shaken at the core, and they thought, wow, what’s important? What really counts?
But of course, in a few weeks things went back to normal. People went back to normal. Their behaviors, their lifestyles, their patterns, just kind of went back to normal. They quit going to church. Their values just returned to normal. It’s hard in the church of Jesus Christ. It’s hard for churches; it’s hard for pastors. We all know that sometimes when God speaks we only pay attention for a short period of time. We don’t hold onto the message. We want His values, but then we’re so influenced by the values of the culture and the values of the world. Of course, when the Twin Towers went down, I think many of you know that Comex Metals of the New York Mercantile Exchange had 12 tons of gold right there in the towers. It went down with the buildings. I think in light of the shock that came to the world, suddenly that gold didn’t seem so important. Saving lives is what seemed important. And of course, Christ has called His people to a radical call. He’s called us to a whole different worldview, a whole different set of values. What counts, what’s important?
We’re fools if we think the abundance of our possessions is what counts. Jesus tells us that what counts is the kingdom of God. That’s what counts. The Sermon on the Mount says, “Seek first the kingdom of God.” Are you aware of the importance of the kingdom of God? Man, do you really believe it’s more important than anything else—more important than your health, more important than your career, more important than your wealth? Do you really believe nothing is more important than the kingdom of God? You see, it’s the kingdom of God that offers life eternal life. It’s the kingdom of God that gives us a purpose on this earth. To the King we live our days. It’s the kingdom of God that that gives us hope beyond this earth. And indeed, a promise in heaven is the kingdom of God that promises that one day we will be His stewards in the new heavens and the new earth. We will reign and rule with Christ forever. It’s all the kingdom of God. Nothing is more important than the kingdom of God and its righteousness. So seek it first, Jesus said.
Of course, in the Bible, it is said by God through Paul that there’s great gain in godliness with contentment. We brought nothing in the world. We can take nothing out of the world. If we have food and clothing, with these we will be content, for those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires that plunge man into ruin and destruction. For the love of love of money is the root of all evil. It’s through this craving that many have wandered away from the faith, piercing their hearts with many pains. We read those words, we quote those words. Do we believe those words? Or are we fools? Nothing is more important than the kingdom of God.
Well, finally, we must be rich towards God. This final message of Christ through This parable is we must be rich towards God. You can’t just lay up treasures for yourself. If we’re not rich towards God, we’re fools. Now, I have a book at home called Who’s Who in Christian in Church History. It covers 2,000 years of Christian history. There’s 1,500 biographies in the book. That’s the number that made the cut. Many incredible Christians never made the cut and aren’t in the book. Now, there’s one person in this book I read about some time ago. His name is Paulinus. Maybe you’ve never heard of him. If you’ve read the Bible, you’ve heard of Paul. If you looked at a Peanuts comic strip, you’ve heard of Linus. Paulinus is the name.
Now, Paulinus was born in 353 in the region of Bordeaux, France. I know you’re thinking one of two things. You might be thinking, “Bordeaux, France. Isn’t that where wine is made? That’s wine country. Isn’t that where vineyards are, valleys are laden with vineyards, and wine is exported?” Yes. Or maybe you’re thinking, “353? Who cares?” That might be what you’re thinking. That’s over 1,650 years ago. Who cares about this guy? What’s he have to do with me? I want to promise you something, and maybe you’re not aware of this, but you’re going to see Paulinus when you get to heaven. I promise you. He’s going to be there. You’re going to see him and you can tell him you didn’t care about his life. You can tell him that. But he was born in 353 in the region of Bordeaux, France, and what was then called Gaul.
He was born with unimaginable wealth. His father was the prefect of Gaul. He was one of the wealthiest men in the world. He had multiple estates in France, multiple estates in Italy, and multiple estates in Spain. This guy owned land all over Europe. He was so wealthy and he received the finest education and he was the most eligible bachelor. He became a practitioner of law. In the course of time he fell in love with a woman named Therasia. She was not a Christian and he was not a Christian. They were just wealthy. It was eat, drink, and be merry. They were people of power and influence in the course of time. Therasia accepted Jesus as a Lord and Savior, an amazing story in its own right. And then she led her husband to faith in Christ. And there came that day when Paulinus got down on his knees and asked Jesus to save him, to be his Savior and to be his Lord.
It was a radical day in his life. As he read the scriptures and he read our passage for today, Luke chapter 12, he read the words of Jesus about the parable of the rich fool. Paulinus thought, what am I to do? I don’t want to be like this guy. I don’t want to be a fool. I know my days are numbered. I know my soul will be required of me. I know that I’ll be weighed. I know that everything in this world will be divided. I want to be rich towards God. What do I do? He made a radical commitment to Christ and he and his wife began to give it away. They resolved that they would give half of all they had to the church, and the church and Europe loved him because half was unimaginable wealth. It was all given to the church.
Then he thought, now I have half left. And it’s unimaginable wealth. I have estates everywhere. I have unbelievable money. What do I do? We begin to use it to serve the cause of heaven, to build monasteries, to begin to build Christian schools, to begin to build houses and orphanages and places for the poor. He began to build seminaries, schools of theology. He built for his own residence a massive building, and he and his wife made the bottom floor residences for all the poor. Hundreds of poor people lived on the bottom floor. The top floor he turned into a theological seminary for students. He and his wife lived in their midst. I find myself thinking, you know, where was his man cave? I mean, how did he cope? But he was sold out. He was just committed to the cause of Christ.
Over the course of time, Paulinus developed a friendship with Martin of Tours and with Ambrose of Milan. They had helped disciple him, but ultimately his best friend became Augustine of Hippo, Augustine of the City of God. Augustine one of the great early church fathers. We have the letters that Augustine and Paulinus wrote to each other back and forth. You can see their love for Christ, their passion for His kingdom. Paulinus died at the age of 78, and he is with the Lord. And he’s an example for us.
I mean, you might think, well, what’s that have to do with me? But I think it has everything to do with me. It has to do with whether or not we’re fools. What we value has to do with what we live for, and has to do with the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God. So Jesus said, “Do not lay up treasures on earth, where rust and moth consume and where thieves break in and steal. Lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where neither rust or moth consume and where no thief breaks in and steals. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Now, we’re coming to the end of our church year and we’re struggling a bit. In the last 20 years, we’ve only had one year where our annual giving was lower than the year before. That was 19 years ago. It’s about to happen again, so that for the second time in 20 years our giving is going to be less than the year before. I know these are hard financial times, but our attendance has increased while our giving has decreased. I think it’s a reason to be concerned. I know God is concerned, and I feel like He’s just wanting me to say to you what I’m saying now. And that is that we need to be more committed.
I think we have some who might think, well, we’re hanging in there, but hanging in there is not good enough. If we’re seeking first the kingdom of God, if we’re approaching the consummation, if you really believe there’s a battle for the souls of men, women, and children the world over, hanging in there’s not good enough. Did you know every dollar you give to this church, a portion of it goes to relief and compassion agencies around the world that we support? A portion of it goes to missionaries who are ministering in more than 60 nations where we’re involved. A portion of every dollar you give goes into the inner city and is used to support the 21 ministries that we hold hands with in the urban city and in the inner city, in the urban corridor. Of course, a portion of it goes right here to our Jerusalem and to the needs that are here, to the thousands of kids that we’ve been called to nurture, a generation that we’ve been called to raise up for Christ.
A portion of it goes to counseling, a portion of it goes to hospital visitation and home visitation. A portion of it goes to the kind of musical program that we had this morning that enables us to worship and glorify God. But when the dollars are short, ministry diminishes here and everywhere. And really, Christ would say to us, what’s important? What really counts mean? So often we’re rich towards ourselves, but are you rich towards God? I know there are times I’m rich towards myself. I feel very blessed. There are times I go to Starbucks, and I don’t need a foo-foo coffee, but I like it. So sometimes I’m just rich towards myself. But I think that Christ smiles if I’m rich towards God. Does He have my wallet? Does He have my bank account? Does He have my time, my talent, and my treasure? Or am I just rich towards me? So He is looking at us. He’s looking at you. He’s looking at me this day. He reminds us the day’s going to come when our soul will be required of us.
Our days are numbered. He reminds us that our worth, our value, does not consist in the sum of our possessions, but that the greatest value is the kingdom of God. The world doesn’t know it, but Christ has called us to a radical worldview. Nothing is more important than the Kingdom of God. Then finally, He cautions us that if we’re rich towards ourselves and we’re not rich towards God, that’s a scary condition. So let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.