O, Hell!
Luke 16:19-31
Through the years, I’ve enjoyed reading epitaphs, on head stones in cemeteries. I remember seeing a list of funny ones, perhaps you’ve heard the story about the message one man left on his tombstone. It said,
“Consider, young man, as you walk by, as you are now, so once was I.
As I am now, you soon shall be, so prepare, young man to follow me.”
That sounded pretty deep, but some one took something and scratched a response on the tombstone that read,
“To follow you is not my intent; until I know which way you went!”
There are only two directions you can go after death. Heaven or Hell
People don’t like to talk about hell, and frankly, I don’t enjoy preaching on it. I am a big believer in God’s grace through Jesus Christ. And because I do I believe that God wants to save all his children. Unfortunately, God gave all of us free will. That means we get to make choices. It means we are special and above all animals. Our pets don’t sit around all day wondering if there is a God. They don’t worry about jobs or what other animals think about them. I do believe that can mourn and love and hate.
People on the other hand are a very young age, can ask the hardest questions. What happens to you after you die? That question comes to parents when children are 4 or 5 years old. I don’t think any scientist has ever said that elephants or dolphins or pigs of any age conceive of the concept of death like humans. We are made different because we can make choices in our lives that affect realities beyond the physical world we can see and touch.
This intelligence means that we make decisions and choices, judge consequences and the choice between Heaven or Hell. That choice is the biggest we have to make.
Our scripture this morning is a parable of Jesus that talks indirectly about choices. It relates to the proper use of money and power in the site of God as a main topic but I believe it describes even more as Jesus explains what happens after death and how it is different than the current understanding.
In this parable Jesus gives a description of the torments of Hell.
So to review the story and a little of the historical context from the day, we have two men, one very rich, the other very poor.
The rich man was evidentially Very wealthy; he dressed in purple which was a sign or wealth for everyone to see. Then you have Lazarus, poor, very likely crippled, and sat by the gate of this guy’s house to beg.
In that day, people ate mostly with their hands and when the meal was over you took bread and wiped your hands and dropped the crumbs and left over on the floor to feed the dog. Lazarus would have gladly taken the things meant for the house hold garbage disposal, to stay alive.
Both men die. The rich man is buried; I suspect he had a great funeral in which many dignitaries attended. Speaker after speaker related what a great, wonderful, religious man he was.
The understanding of God in this time period, said that if you were rich and doing well God was on your side. Obviously this man was blessed. Therefore he was headed for a reward in Heaven.
But one split second after the rich man died, he got the feeling something wasn’t right. It was not what he expected. Jesus simply said, “In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up”
According to Jesus, the first thing the man noticed was the torment, but the next scary thing he noticed was that he could see into heaven! He saw people in heaven, from where he was, part of his suffering was seeing that there was something better than he had. That was a new experience for this man; He had lived the rich life EVERYDAY.
When the beggar Lazarus died, it doesn’t say he was buried like the rich man. His body was probably dumped in some garbage pile and burned with the rest of the trash. If you were poor and crippled, and had many problems in your life, God was not with you, it was obvious that you were a sinner because of your condition.
But Jesus said the angels escorted his soul into the presence of Abraham.
For the Jews, Abraham’s bosom, was where the souls of all the righteous dead went. This was the understanding before Jesus and the cross. After the cross, Jesus took these folks to heaven. Technically this is heaven or a step that the Jews believed to be on the way to heaven. It’s okay to call it heaven.
This scripture answers one of the questions people often wonder if we will recognize each other in heaven. According to this scripture we will. The rich man looked up and recognized Lazarus and Abraham. So it may be that you will know everyone, even people you never personally met. If they can recognize us from hell, then I think we’ll recognize each other in heaven.
Jesus tells us that the rich man speaks of a flame and maybe we can all imagine what a burn is like and how it seems to hurt for a long time. But I believe that Hell will have worse things. One of the worst agonies of hell will be the ability of people in hell to see those who are in heaven. Can you imagine lost husbands seeing their wives in heaven? Lost children seeing their parents in heaven? Or any combination of friends and family.
That seems worse than physical pain to me. The feeling of shame and failure, that hurts now, imagine if it is too late and you can’t fix it, never fix it. As a kid we thought we hurt when someone else got something new and cool. We may have wanted something so bad that it hurt. But that will be nothing like the desire for heaven, to be with family, friends and God. There it is, just over there, But unobtainable.
Another agony of hell was, He could remember his life on earth.
Abraham says “Son remember… “ You will remember the choices and chances, remember Sunday school teachers, preachers, friends and even strangers that shared Jesus and God’s love. You will remember Every opportunity that you had a choice to find out more. You will remember the times that God blessed you and touched your life trying to get your attention.
Hell is remembrance and regret for your choice or the failure to choose, point of view, and perhaps your arrogance and pride. The remorse is not over what you did but what you did not do. The failure to accept the invitation that you were offered.
God Loves you and does not want you to go to hell. In fact he never designed the place for his children. Hell is designed for the devil and his angels. But because of human sinfulness, we have hell as an automatic destination.
--- If we don’t make another choice that is where the road ends.
Another piece of information - When we die we will have bodies. In the parable Jesus mentions several aspects of the human body, the rich man had a tongue, and Lazarus had a finger. Personally I don’t think it is too big jump to think the rest of the body will be in place if the small pieces are there.
We will have our senses - The rich man felt pain and evidentially thirst.
Our personalities will be intact - The Rich man’s personality did not appear to change in his new situation. He expects Lazarus to serve or help him when he is in need. He seems to feel superior to Lazarus. The rich man thinking of himself ask Abraham to send Lazarus over with a drop of water to relive his suffering. That seems to be what got him to into hell in the first place, being selfish when people around him suffered.
He didn’t ask Abraham to do it, he had respect for Father Abraham.
We also learn that there is a physical separation between the two places. It seems that once you are delivered to a destination. That is it. The door latched behind you. You can see out through the ceiling into heaven but you can’t go there. And Abraham says that you can’t go from heaven through the floor either.
Abraham describes a chasm separating the two locations that is permanent. It is not a choice for either side to keep their place. It is established by God.
The next thing that we learn is that the rich man has memories of his family, and for the first time he shows some remorse for his actions. Maybe it is the torment or the emotion he has as he comes to understand his fate. He actually decides that he does not want his brothers to end up there.
SLIDE –Sign
The entertainment community and most other non believers find it easy to joke about Hell. They think hell is going to be a place of fun, and frolicking with your friends. Some people think hell is going to be a rock and roll heaven with a hell of a band. Some people know that they have been evil and made bad decisions and hurt people. They believe that they and their friends will all be there, that some how it will be ok because they will know people there.
The rich man does not talk like he can see anyone except the people of heaven. From what he is going through, He does not feel like he would want his brothers to join him. He wants them to change; He wants Abraham to send Lazarus, from the dead to warn them.
Hell is probably going to be a lonely place, because it is going to be so personal.
We all have a lot of preconceived notions of what Hell is like. But I don believe they are supported by scripture. They come from human sources.
The devil is not going to be there to punish you; he is condemned to his own judgment, his own failures and personal torment. He is not in charge of anything.
Hell is a place of utter darkness, and weeping and gnashing of teeth. It’s a place of isolation, and frustration. Remember, this is not some weird prophet seeing a vision of the afterlife; this is Jesus speaking plainly about what hell is like.
Today we all need to recognize that Heaven is the place to be. That the torment of Hell is not something to just say “What ever” Or ever think it is no big deal.
We all need to make sure we have made the choice for the alternative, Heaven.
Heaven is real, and it will be populated with people. How do you get to heaven?
Here is the surprise, for some people, Not by being good or doing good–nobody is good enough. You don’t get to heaven by being religious, or coming to church. The rich man was a religious Jew. He called out to “father Abraham” and Abraham even said, “son.” Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had father Abraham. I am one of them and so are you–
but it won’t get you into heaven.
Only by being a child of God can you get into heaven!
The rich man knew how to stay out of hell. He just never did it when he had the chance in that life of fast cars, cable TV, and good meals. He knew that his brothers could repent and change their lives and go to heaven. Hindsight 20/20
As long as we are alive we all have the ability to choose heaven, and can go there because of the love, grace and mercy of God our creator.
For all of us who have already made the choice, there is a message here for us. We really only have a chance to change people’s lives while we are here.
Right now the non-believers or jokers we know, have the bible, the preachers and teachers, tele-evangelist to tell them about Hell and heaven.
They also have you, and you may be just the one that will help people to make a choice and not just say “whatever.”
You know, I find that I spent too much time with Christians. I forget that there are a lot of people all around me that are going to Hell. They are moving through life and maybe unaware that there is a choice to be made.
Here is a “what if” question for you. What if God gave you a chance to go to Heaven or hell just for 30 seconds? Just a quick glimpse no more. Which would make you a better Christian?
Seeing the glory and promises of heaven, perhaps our loved ones and the many wonders might make you want to make sure your choice was made. Yes, That is what I want, where do I sign!
What about experiencing Hell for 30 seconds? I believe the brief experience of hell would affect us in a different way. I believe that it would change us into acting more like Jesus or Paul in how we feel about people of this world. We would all be changed to have a burden to keep people out of there. That we would be desperate to share the good news of a different choice that we would be changed to really be mature and caring Christians.
I scanned through a lot of scripture and commentaries and I did not find the eternal aspect of hell that most of us think about. I did find that Judgment is eternal. The choice you make is one way. That the suffering for those that don’t choose the alternative is horrible.
I know from Book of Revelation that the Devil and his angels are sent there for destruction. I am guessing that humans will also have an end to the torment because we do have a loving God. But I still never wish that fait on anyone.
Do you have a burden for people headed for Hell?
Have you shed any tears over lost people in your family or circle of friends?
Do you care for the people sitting at the gates of this church, the mall, or your house?
All Glory be to God!
