Rich Man and Lazarus
Luke 16:19-31
Jesus teaches us that:
Everyone lives forever
Heaven and Hell are real, eternal places
How you respond to God’s word now determines your eternity.
This means that:
If we believe what Jesus teaches is true,
And we care about others,
We must engage them with the gospel.
Turn to Luke 16:19-31
Series: para ballo Jesus came out of obscurity at the age of 30 with one message: repent and be a part of the kingdom of God. He followed up this basic message with 31 distinctive and different parables primarily illustrating the nature and population of the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, both referring to the same reality. Eeach parable is a picture of the kingdom of God.
Jesus deals with bad theology in this parable: a person thinks that he’s right with God because of his social and economic status.
In our day people think “good people” go to heaven, “religious people” go to heaven, “selfless people” go to heaven. See 2018 Pew Research on Religious and Public Life.
Prosperity preachers; health/wealth…explain their teaching; relate story about poor=lost.
However, it’s not about what you do or don’t do; it’s about responding rightly to God’s word.
Want us to read through the whole parable then come back, read again with some comments along the way, then draw out the main teaching and application. Luke 16:19-31 (on screen)
Now let’s work our way back through it and drill down in a couple of places
v.19 There was a rich man… What do you notice about this man? Well he’s got the fine life, right? He’s got the best this life has to offer. Says he bought his clothes at the finest stores: Express, Brooks Brothers, not Walmart or Ross. Looked like he stepped out of GQ magazine. To the prosperity preachers of our day, this guy must be right with God; must be blessed of God. What else do you notice? He is nameless. In the value system of Jesus, this man was inconsequential; nameless. Our world knowns the name of people like Putin and Trump and Taylor Swift and Beyonce and Oprah and Justin—do you think for a moment Jesus esteems them based on their celebrity?
v.20 But a poor man named Lazarus…now this guy is identified by Jesus. He’s got nothing that the rich man had; in fact, his life seems as miserable as it gets. Sores oozing pus; dogs licking the sores. Awful. Jesus continues to contrast these two. v.21
v.22 …carried away by the angels to Abraham’s side…. Euphemism for the presence of God.
The rich man also died and was buried… Quite a contrast here
v.26 …cup of water the rich guy still saw Lazarus as subservient to him.
v.29 …Moses and the prophets This was a signal to the Jewish leaders of the time that the their Scritpures, our Old Testament gave ample evidence about the path to heaven and that it was not by works, but by faith.
v.31 … they will not be persuaded if someone rises from the dead For some people it’s not about the evidence; there’s ample evidence about the claims of Christ. It’s not about the evidence, it’s about their refusal to consider the evidence; it’s about a hardness of heart.
Compare Rich man and Lazarus
Which one lived well? Honest: which would you rather be?
How do we decide? Comfort, stuff, lifestyle, lack of suffering
Funny how eternal things are usually not in our top 5 list of determiners…..we assume that the Rich man lived better? But the real question is: Did anything he did have lasting value?
Which one died well?
Rich man was buried; separated from God
Lazarus was carried away by angels; present w/ God
Which one would you rather be?
Our decisions today have great impact on our eternity tomorrow
Jesus teaches us that:
Everyone exists forever
I read an article a few weeks ago that caught my attention: “Do you want to live forever? You just have to make it to 2050” In this genetics article by a leading geneticist, Ian Person, he lists 3 methods a person might be able to live forever: 1. Renewing your body parts. “No one wants to live forever at 95 years old, but if you could rejuvenate the body to 29 or 30, you might want to do that." So maybe genetic engineering can slow down the aging process or just exchange old body parts with new body parts; 2. Living in Android bodies. “A long time before we get to fix our bodies and rejuvenate it every time we feel like, we'll be able to link our minds to the machine world so well, we'll effectively be living in the cloud.” 3. Living in a virtual world. "If our minds are online, do we even need robot bodies? We could all just live in a computer simulation quite happily”, according to Dr Pearson.
Here’s what the Bible says: You can live forever or you can die forever. Let me repeat that: you can live forever or die forever. Physical death is not the end of our existence. This parable teaches that some part of us, our soul, is eternal.
That claim is reinforced by how the Bible, particularly Jesus insist that the only two places our souls go are places of eternal reward or eternal punishment.
Heaven and Hell are real, eternal places
Jesus states that Lazarus is at Abraham’s side. I mentioned before this is a euphemism, a figure of speech that indicates the presence of God. This would have caught the attention of the Pharisees in particular, because Abraham is the father of their faith; the one, who if anyone would be acceptable to God, it would be Abraham.
The Bible speaks a lot about the place where believers will be after we die physically. It’s called paradise at times—remember Jesus told the thief on the cross, “This day you will be with me in paradise.” Other times the word heaven is used. Whatever heaven and where ever paradise is, it is in the presence of God.
An excellent book on Heaven is Randy Alcorn’s book—(hold up) Let me just voice a vew highlights:
Heaven is were God is.
Heaven is where there is no fear, no shame, no pain, no disease, no death.
Heaven is where there is incredible peace, joy, purpose, love and the very best that the infinite God can provide for those who surrendered their lives to Christ.
Jesus states that the rich man was in Hades. Hades is the Greek word for the Hebrew word Sheol. In a broad sense it means the holding place of the dead. Sometimes the NT will say that when someone dies, they descend to Hades, meaning, they’re not among the living any more. But in a more specific sense, Hades is the place that those outside of Christ go to upon death.
Jesus talked a lot about the reality of hell. Look at v.28 in this parable: “I have five brothers—to warn them, so they won’t also come to this place of torment.”
Matthew 25:30 “Throw this good-for-nothing servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Luke 9:43-49 “43 “And if your hand causes you to fall away, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and go to hell, the unquenchable fire.,as 45 And if your foot causes you to fall away, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to fall away, gouge it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. 49 For everyone will be salted with fire
This quote emphasizes the point:
“Jesus talks about hell more than he talks about heaven, and describes it more vividly. There’s no denying that Jesus knew, believed, and warned against the absolute reality of hell.” Gospel Coalition
Whatever hell is, it is the absence of God. The absence of any thing good; the absence of any justice, the absence of any purpose, the absence of any light; absence of any love, joy or peace.
Story of “aint no death in hell”
How you respond to God’s word now determines your eternity.
As Hebrews 9:27 says, “And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment.” How we respond to God’s word now determines our eternity.
There is no mulligans, do-overs, no second chances.
Refer to the people who were baptized last week…
3 circle Gospel presentation (need chart/markers)
Choose today….whom you will serve….
For he says: At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I
helped you. See, NOW is the acceptable time; NOW is the day of salvation!
2 Corinthians 6:2
Invitation
Many if not most of us are already heaven bound. But is that the end of our story? NO!
If we believe what Jesus teaches is true,
And we care about others,
We must engage them with the gospel.
Remember your ‘one’; one far from God; needing God’s rescue; pray daily; s
