PARABLES OF CHRIST
THE RICH FOOL
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 12:15-21
SEPTEMBER 20, 1998
It has been said that Charles Spurgeon was a bright and shining light bursting upon a world of darkness. Spurgeon was born in the year 1834 in Essex, in England. He was the son of a congregationalist minister. He was descended from Quakers and Huguenots, and he was reared in a deeply spiritual home. After a brief period of rebellion, he accepted Christ and gave his heart to Christ at the age 16 in the year 1850 in a little tiny Methodist church in Colchester, England. Two year later, at the age of 18, he felt the call of God to the preaching of the gospel. He began to pastor a little Baptist church near Cambridge in England.
Two years later, at the age of 20, he became the pastor of the New Park Street Church in London, England, and that church became one of the largest churches in the world. People gathered every Sunday to hear Charles Spurgeon preach and his gifts were great. Sometimes hundreds or even thousands of people were turned away and could not get into the sanctuary. There were occasions when Charles Spurgeon asked the members of the church not to come so he could speak the gospel to visitors.
The sanctuary in which Charles Spurgeon preached was more than twice the size of this sanctuary that we’re gathered in this morning. Certainly, he was more than twice the preacher that I am this morning. But it matters little because God has not called us to greatness. God has called us to faithfulness, and Spurgeon was faithful. Sometimes it was his faithfulness to God and to God’s word that got him into trouble. He received a lot of critical letters, as pastors sometimes do. It was his sense of humor that saw him through all of that criticism.
I think some of you know the story. There was an occasion when Charles Spurgeon received a letter. It was anonymous. He opened it up. The letter simply said, “Fool”—in big letters—”FOOL!” Spurgeon took the letter to church the next Sunday morning and held it up for his congregation to see. He said, “I’ve just received this letter and it says, ‘FOOL!’ I must say, many are the times that I’ve received a letter where a person wrote a message and neglected to sign it, but this is the first time I’ve received a letter where a person signed his name and neglected to write the message!”
Of course, we live in a world where there are a lot of fools. I think in the eyes of the world, sometimes Christians are fools. But as Christians, it’s God that we want to please, and we don’t want to appear foolish in the eyes of God. Jesus tells us a parable this morning about a man who was foolish in the eyes of God. The Greek word for fool in this passage is the word “aphron,” which means “without a mind.” It means “without reason.” It means “without rational thought.” In the eyes of God, the man who is the subject of this parable was without a mind. He was mindless. He was without rational thought. He was a fool, and he was a fool for two reasons, and these comprise our two teachings.
First of all, he was a fool because he thought that he could secure his future through wealth. Jesus said, “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully. He said to himself, ‘What shall I do? For I have no place in which to store my crops.’ He said, ‘I’ll do this. I’ll tear down my barns. I’ll build larger barns. There I will store my grain and my goods, and I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Take your ease. Eat, drink and be merry.”‘ You see, he thought he had secured his future by virtue of his wealth. In the eyes of God, this is foolish.
In the Book of Daniel, we are told about Belshazzar, who was the last king of the Babylonian Empire, the son of Nabonidus. Belshazzar was perhaps the wealthiest man in the world at that time in history. The Book of Daniel tells us that there came a night in which Belshazzar threw a great feast for all of his lords and all of his friends. It was in the royal banquet hall and there were great festivities and singing and dancing and drinking and feasting. Belshazzar commanded that the sacred vessels that had been stolen from the Jerusalem Temple by Nebuchadnezzar years earlier be brought into the royal banquet hall and that they be used in the celebration.
Suddenly, the Bible tells us, the Babylonian king saw a hand appear, a supernatural hand. The hand wrote three words on the banquet hall wall: “Mene, tekel, parsin.” And those words meant, “Numbered, weighed, and divided,” but Belshazzar did not understand the meaning of the words and so he called for Daniel, the prophet of God, the interpreter of dreams and mysteries. Daniel came and Daniel interpreted this message. He said to the king of Babylon, “Your days are numbered. You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. Your kingdom will be divided and given to others.” And so it was that that very night the armies of Cyrus the Great, in the year 539, swept over the city of Babylon. Belshazzar was cast down and the Babylonian Empire came to an end. The kingdom of Belshazzar was divided and given over into the hands of the Medes and the Persians.
There is a sense in which what happened to Belshazzar will happen to each and every one of us because, you see, our days are numbered. My days are numbered. Your days are numbered. We will all be weighed on that great day. It’s all going to be divided. Everything you have, everything I have on this earth, is all going to be divided and given to others when we die. That is the way of things. Numbered, weighed, divided. We are fools if we think we can somehow secure our future with money or with wealth because no one knows when their number will come up.
I recently read a story by Chuck Swindoll in his book called “Living Above The Level Of Mediocrity.” Swindoll tells the story of a friend who was a businessman. He took a business trip. He arrived in this other city but somehow his luggage failed to arrive. Perhaps that’s happened to you. This friend thought to himself, “Well, I’ve got to get a suit for this business meeting.” He went to a thrift store thinking he could pick a suit up cheap. At the thrift store, he was told that they do have some cheap suits that they could sell to him, but they’ve come from a funeral home. Some of the suits were made specifically for the funeral home and others were adapted to the funeral home’s use. He could buy those suits for $25 each. The man thought, “Well, this is kind of an opportunity,” and he bought two suits for $25 each.
He took them back to his hotel room. As he was about to go to his business meeting, he got dressed into one of the suits. He went to put his wallet in the back pocket and noticed there wasn’t a back pocket. In fact, as he began to check the suit out, there weren’t any pockets anywhere. There weren’t any back pockets. There weren’t any front pockets. There weren’t any pockets inside the coat. It dawned on him that dead people don’t need pockets.
Of course, it’s an illustration of what the Bible tells us, that we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of this world. If we think that things or possessions or money or wealth can secure future, we are fools. But there’s a second more important teaching here. This second teaching is much more important. This man was a fool not only because he thought he could secure his future through wealth, but he was a fool, Jesus tells us, because he lived for himself. This is revealed in the words that Jesus uses in describing this man’s thoughts. The man spoke of “my crops,” “my grain,” “my goods,” “my barn,” “my soul.” He viewed all things as from his own hand and for his own use. Of course, he said to himself, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Take your ease. Eat, drink, and be merry.” He thought that all the wealth that he had accumulated was for his own personal pleasure, for his own personal comfort, for his own personal ease, for his own personal enjoyment. He lived for himself and that was reflected in the way that he viewed wealth and the way that he viewed money.
At the end of this little parable, the warning of Christ is this: “So shall it be for all of those who are rich towards themselves and not rich towards God.” This man was a fool in the sight of God because he lived for himself. Christ would ask us this morning, “Who are we living for?” He would ask you this morning as you come to the table, as you come to communion, “Who are you living for?” He would ask you if you are living for yourself
I have a book at home called, “Who’s Who in Christian History.” It’s a big, huge, thick hardbound book. In there, there’s the story of 1,500 different people. One of those is a person named Paulinus. Paulinus was a man born in 353 AD. He was born in the Bordeaux region of France, which was then called Gaul. He was given a broad education, passed the bar, and became a lawyer in his 20’s. He had immense wealth. He was one of the richest men of his time. It is true that people all over Europe sought the friendship of Paulinus. He was considered one of Europe’s most eligible bachelors.
Paulinus fell in love with a Spanish woman who’s named was Therasia. He fell in love with her and they were married. He had homes in Italy, in France, and he also had homes in Spain. They moved to his French estate. They really thought that they would just virtually retire there though they were young. They thought they would just live a life of luxury. Then, in the year 390, when Paulinus was 37 years of age, he became a Christian. He was led to Jesus Christ and to faith in Christ through Martin of Tours, through Ambrose of Milan, and through his wife, Therasia, who had just recently become a Christian.
So Paulinus suddenly became a Christian and gave his heart to Christ. Then his wife, Therasia, gave birth to a child and it was a little girl. They loved this little child, but then the child died and they were heartbroken. It did not push them further from Christ but, on the contrary, it drew them closer to Christ. Perhaps for the first time they began to examine their lives, how they were living and who they were living for. Paulinus and his wife came to the conclusion that they had only been living for themselves and they were convicted by the Holy Spirit and they repented.
This was the beginning of a transformed life for Paulinus and for Therasia. They gave half of their wealth to the church and to the poor. In the year 394, they moved to Barcelona in Spain and Paulinus received training in the priesthood and was ordained as a minister. Then in 396, Paulinus and Teresia moved to Nola, a town in central Italy not far from Naples. There they purchased a 2-story building. It was a long 2-story building. They used the bottom floor as a shelter for homeless people. Paulinus and his wife made their home on the top floor. They also converted the top floor into a monastery where people could come and Paulinus would teach them in the scriptures. This was such a success that Paulinus bought other buildings around Nola and converted them to shelters for homeless people and to monasteries for scriptural instruction. Paulinus began to write poetry and it was beautiful poetry that lifted people’s hearts and gave people faith. He became one of the more renowned poets of Europe. He began to cultivate interest in the Christian arts and in Christian music. He was the first to use bells in the context of worship. He became friends with Christians all over Europe.
Augustine became his good friend, and even Pope Anastasius I became his good friend. In the year 409, Paulinus was appointed Bishop of Nola. In the year 431 he died at the age of 78. He went to heaven where his treasure was because he had abandoned earthly treasure and he had laid up treasure in heaven.
You might sit there and say, “Well, what does he have to do with me? He lived in the 4th and 5th centuries, and I live in the late 20th century and the 21st century is dawning. What does he have to do with me?” But, you see, some things never change. It doesn’t matter when you live. You have to choose between living for yourself and living for God. We all have to make that choice. Are we living for ourselves or are we living for God? Of course, joy is ultimately only found when we choose to live for Christ, when we choose to live for God.
I recently read the story of Rick Cholet. It was March 18, 1991, when Rick Cholet, who was a very successful businessman and entrepreneur, went into the garage of his expensive New Hampshire home. He made sure the doors were shut and sealed. He got into his BMW, he started the engine, and he snuffed out his own life through carbon monoxide poisoning. He left a note. In that note, Rick Cholet wrote, “Please forgive me, but the thought of going through the torture of living is just too much to bear.”
Steven Berglas tells the stories of people like Rick Cholet in his book called The Success Syndrome: Hitting the Bottom when you Reach the Top. According to Steven Berglas, people like Rick Cholet take their own life because of what he calls “encore anxiety.” They reach the point in their life where they don’t know what to do for an encore. They have become successful, they have become wealthy, but they don’t know what to do for an encore. They can’t “one-up” themselves. They’re afraid that they might not be able to continue to acquire more or attain more. Sometimes this encore anxiety just becomes overwhelming, and they don’t even want to live anymore.
Personally, I doubt that Steven Berglas has accurately identified the sole or root problem that these people have. I don’t think people like Rick Cholet take their lives because of encore anxiety. I think they take their lives because of core anxiety. There’s a difference between encore anxiety and core anxiety. Core anxiety is what you feel in your soul when you live for self. Core anxiety is what you feel when you do not live for God and when you do not live for Christ. There is an emptiness, a meaninglessness, that comes when we live for self. Life loses purpose and meaning. People who have core anxiety try to fill the void with more stuff and more pleasure. Ultimately it never works, and it all ends in meaninglessness and despair. That’s why a person who lives for self is a fool. That’s why we have this parable here where Jesus tells us that we must be rich towards God.
Just after Jesus told this little parable, He told the parable to the crowds and then He turned to His disciples and He communicated to them that famous passage (one of my favorite passages) where Jesus said, “Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, what you shall drink, what you shall wear. For is not your life more than food and is not the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them all. Are you not of much more value than they? Which of you, by being anxious, can add one cubit to your span of life? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, and yet I tell you, Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If God so clothes the lilies of the field which are here for a day and tomorrow are burnt, how much more will He clothe you, oh ye of little faith? So do not be anxious, saying, ‘what shall I eat, what shall I drink, what shall I wear,’ for the nations seek after such things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things will be yours as well. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”
So, this morning as we come to this communion table, Christ wants us to examine our hearts and to ask ourselves whether we are trusting in gold or trusting in God. He wants us to ask ourselves whether we are rich towards ourselves or rich towards God. If our hearts aren’t right and it’s reflected in the way we use our time and our talents and our treasure, then He wants us to repent and begin to live from this day forth lives that are pleasing to Him and fulfilling to us. Let’s close with a word of prayer.