Sermon Brief
Date Written: August 20, 2008
Date Preached: August 20, 2008
Where Preached: OPBC (Wed PM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: A Study of the Parables
Sermon Title: The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus
Sermon Text: Luke 16:19-31 (HCSB)
19 "There was a rich man who would dress in purple and fine linen, feasting lavishly every day. 20 But a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, was left at his gate. 21 He longed to be filled with what fell from the rich man’s table, but instead the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22 One day the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 And being in torment in Hades, he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off, with Lazarus at his side. 24 ’Father Abraham!’ he called out, ’Have mercy 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 flame!’ 25 "’Son,’ Abraham said, ’remember that during your life you received your good things, just as Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.
26 Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that those who want to pass over from here to you cannot; neither can those from there cross over to us.’ 27 "’Father,’ he said, ’then I beg you to send him to my father’s house— 28 because I have five brothers—to warn them, so they won’t also come to this place of torment.’ 29 "But Abraham said, ’They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ 30 " ’No, father Abraham,’ he said. ’But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ 31 "But he told him, ’If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.’"
Introduction:
There are many ‘takes’ on this parable and what it means. Some say that it is reveals that there is no place for wealth in the Kingdom of God and that the poor and disenfranchised are those who are going to benefit from the Kingdom.
These people say that this just proves that you cannot have money and serve God, and they attempt to use Paul’s admonition about the love of money as a pillar in their campaign against wealth in the church…
However this parable really has NOTHING to do with rich or poor, but when we look intensely at this parable we find that it has everything to do with the attitude and condition of the heart, and this was not a new teaching by Jesus, but merely a RE-newed teaching about the Kingdom of Heaven from yet one more perspective!
Now when we break this parable out into pieces we find that it has one central character or authority figure (Abraham) who speaks for God and then it has 2 separate subordinate characters (Rich man and Lazarus)that represent the different attitudes of the heart…” This parable is a story of contrast between these 2 subordinate characters and different attitudes of the heart.
In this parable Jesus uses 2 eternal locations that all Jews would have known about and would have understood. Jesus spoke about Hades (which the Jews believed to be the place of the wicked dead) and the bosom of Abraham (the place of the righteous dead)!
Abraham, the central authority figure of the parable, enters into the parable a short time after the opening set up. He explains to each of the secondary characters about the judgments that have been given…but the focus is on the Rich Man and why he has rec’d such a harsh judgment.
But a theme we can gather from this parable is the ‘too late’ theme all throughout the story.
The rich man paid attention to Lazarus ‘too late’,
the rich man finds out about this unbridged chasm ‘too late’,
the rich man discovers he is ‘too late’ to help out his brothers, and
the rich man finds out ‘too late’ that he had not been heeding God’s commands (as they had been given by the prophets)
So many people in our world today, when the face Jesus on that great and final day are going to find out the same thing… that it’s ‘too late’! Jesus even teaches in Matt 7 that many are going to call Him, “Lord, Lord” but He is going to say to them, “I don’t know who you are…throw them out!”
This parable can be used to illustrate the finality of death for the unbeliever as it pertains to their spiritual condition. Once you die, there is no changing… there is no redemption! There are many religions today that teach and preach that there is hope after death for those who are unregenerate.
There is the practice of ‘baptizing for the dead’ used by the Mormon church. There is the belief and doctrine of MANY religions in re-incarnation. But Scripture is clear and plain about this in that when you die… your eternity is set by the choices you have made here in this life! Choose God…eternal life…choose self and the world… eternal torment!
However, there are other things we need to look at when we view this parable. We can also see that there are some unique qualities about it that many may just pass over in a glance, but I want us to look closely:
First, this parable does not limit itself to the events of this world only, but they are carried into the afterlife as well.
Another difference is that the characters of this parable have names, whereas most of the characters of Jesus’ parables were not named, but He would address them as a certain man or woman… or a Pharisee...
So what does this mean for us today? Well in reading Craig Bloomberg’s Interpreting the Parables, Bloomberg says that we can come to the conclusion that the characters of this short parable do not seem to reveal any symbolism, but rather it is a representation of people in the identical situation of Lazarus… it is a representation for those who feel and are disenfranchised in this life… for those to whom life deals the bad hand… for those who suffer at the hands of others…this parable is for them!
Now a conclusion we cannot jump to here is that if you suffer you are going to be saved… Scripture is clear on this matter as well, salvation comes from God thru Christ’s redemptive work on the Cross…and that salvation is freely given to all who come to Him as Savior…regardless if they suffered or not in this life! So suffering in and of itself is not a path to salvation, but Christ is pointing out that there are these people in life that God cares about…even though the world may not!
Now that we have viewed the overall aspects of this parable, let’s begin to dissect it and look at it piece by piece…First we see that Christ portrays the rich man as a man consumed with his wealth and desire to please only himself. There was a need right under his nose and he did not meet it…he ignored it!
The wealth of this man was not the issue but it was the attitude of the heart, which is similar to what the Rich man in our parable last week represented… thought only of himself and not of others or God…gave no recognition to God…nor did he care about the needs of others!
Jesus taught in Matt 25 that our actions in this world mean a great deal. Context of Scripture prevent Matt 25 from being a pattern for salvation, but rather it is what the pattern of the saved should be! What Christ is teaching is that when we see a need, we are called to act on that need, and if we ignore it we are NOT serving Him!
The rich man in this parable did not care about Lazarus NOR did he even notice that he existed, his life was centered on HIMSELF! This is NOT the actions and attitudes of a believer!
Lazarus represents the throw aways of society. Those who are truly in need, those who have truly suffered at the hands of others. Lazarus was viewed in this parable as one who had faith in God… the name Lazarus in Hebrew means “God Helps”. However, this parable does not list any acts of piety or faith on behalf of Lazarus other than his uncomplaining acceptance of his plight in life.
Now this can be viewed in many ways but Bloomberg states that Jesus could be hinting here at God’s sovereignty in salvation by identifying Lazarus as one whom God gave aid…so with this in mind we can draw some suggested conclusions:
1st that like Lazarus, all whom God helps will be borne directly to the bosom of Abraham… into God’s presence!
2nd that like the Rich man, those who are unrepentant will experience unrelenting punishment for all eternity!
3rd that thru Abraham, Moses and the prophets, God has revealed Himself and His will so that those who reject God have NO protest in their eternal punishment.
This parable strikes deep at the common perception of life that the Pharisees and almost ALL Hebrew people viewed at this time and that was that if you were rich, God was blessing you and if you were poor and sickly, God was punishing you!
That sentiment still is prevalent today as many people equate earthly success with Godly blessing! We have preachers on the TV who preach health, wealth and success as direct blessings of God!
They preach that if you only have enough faith… God is going to do GREAT and MIGHTY things in your life, like rid you of financial burden…usually that challenge is followed up by ‘if you will only send me a ‘seed’ offering of this much money…God is going to bless you!
Well usually those men are the ones being ‘blessed’ financially because of all the ‘love offerings’ pouring in…and the one who sent it…is left empty because the Word they rec’d from this preacher was empty! But this parable denies that premise and establishes the fact that God loves even the least in this world…in fact the least are going to be exalted according to Jesus.
Another part of this parable is the conversation between Abraham and the rich man in torment. When we look at this conversation it reveals a great deal to us. This reveals some characteristics of those in the afterlife:
1st we can see that they have a conscious awareness of where they are…
2nd we can see that they have a memory of their past…
3rd we can see that they have the capacity to reason…
4th we can see that they are acutely perceptive to outcome…
However this seems to indicate that there will be the possibility of conversations from hell to heaven… or that there may be some who wanted to travel between the 2 destinations! This setting is not a picture of what IS going to happen but it is a picture of the eternal station of both heaven and hell.
Heaven and hell will be separated and NO ONE can get from one to the other. Those in hell will be able to remember what they did in life, wail and mourn over their decisions and they will wish they could speak to their families to warn them of the terrible fate that awaits those who reject God..
Abraham’s answers to the rich man’s inquires and requests are all answers that support the premise that we set forth at the beginning of this study and that is that after death, our fate is sealed. We must make an eternal spiritual choice here in this life, and the one we make we are sealed to in the afterlife! We choose God, we have His eternal rest… we reject or ignore God…we have eternal torment!
So as we view this parable it reveals to us the urgency of choosing God in this life for there will be no option to choose Him in the next. Jesus said that TODAY is the day of salvation! Jesus clothed Himself in flesh and came to this world… to live with and among His creation to bring salvation to THIS world so that in the next we would experience Him and His rest!
All of Scripture points to a choice having to be made in this life and that there is no other option after death. The book of Hebrews reveals that after death comes the judgment… so TODAY… NOW… is when we are called to surrender and submit to Christ!
