Luke's Gospel

As Phil brings us the words. It's, Luke chapter 16 verses 19 to 31, which is on page 1050 on the church bibles. There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named lazarus, covered with sores, and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side.

The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with lazarus by him by his side. So he called to him father Abraham have pity on me and send lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and call my tongue because I am in agony in this fire. But Abraham replied, son, remember that in your lifetime, you received your good things, while lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this between us and you, a great chasm has been set in place, so those who want to go from here to you cannot nor can anyone cross from there to us.

He answered, then I beg you, father send lazarus to my family for I have 5 brothers, let him warn them so that they will not also come to this place of torment. Abraham replied, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them. No father Abraham, he said, But if someone from the dead ghosts of them, they will repent. He said to them, if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.

Let's pray. Well, we thank you for your words. We thank you that we can freely read it in this country lord. We pray for film, help him to speak clearly and help us as a church to be accepting of it, help our ears to be open our eyes to see the truths that you are presenting to us, amen. Thanks, Rich.

My name's Philip Cooper. I'm 1 of the, elders here at Cornerstone. It's it's great to Have you with us this evening? Welcome if you're visiting or a family member. We've been carrying on, we've been looking at this series in Luke for some time now.

A lot of the fight club guys have been involved in preaching. They're all online. If you want to hear them, it's been a terrific series, and we've reached this story just in time for Christmas. Doesn't strike me very Christmas. See, but there you go.

This is where we are. Luke 16 and verse 19 onwards, and we're gonna look at this story this evening. A rich has has prayed for us already. So, we can get straight in. Please keep it open in front of you.

Be be very helpful. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you thought, how on earth did I end up here? You know, what am I doing here? You may have thought you might fill it tonight. I don't know.

I mean, actually, I think about that. The first couple of times I've preached every time before I got up, I thought, why am I doing this? This is a nightmare. And, how did I let Pete persuade me to give this a go? As a teenage actually, I can remember, I wanted to go and see a band that most of you, because this church is so young, you won't even even heard of, probably.

But it was a band called Lindisfarne. And Lindisfarne were a bunch of Jordis who every year did 10 nights in a row, either side of Christmas Day, in New Castle, New Castle as it really is, City Hall. And I wanted to go up see this. So when I was a teenager about this had been boxing down pretty sure it was, me and her mate hitchhiked up to New Castle, and we saw this Lindisfarne concert in the evening. And it was terrific, but we hadn't thought any further than that.

So we had nowhere to stay. There was nowhere open. And we ended up I ended up sleeping in my sleeping bag, in an NCP car park that was closed on the floor there. And that was 1 of those occasions. I thought, what on earth am I doing here?

Really? Was it that good? And then we had to hitchhike back the next day, knackered, cold, tired. So Have you ever been in that situation? Have you ever thought, what was that all about, really?

Now they were quite lighthearted examples. But you see, I think this is passage is talking about that because I think there's gonna be a lot of people who when they die are gonna be similarly surprised. You know, actually more like shocked to find themselves in hell. And they're gonna be asking, what am I doing here? This wasn't what I expected, but I think a lot of people are gonna find that.

People who've ignored god. People who judge their own behavior, their own life, only in relation to others around them. Saying, well, I'm better than him. I'm nicer than she is, and yet they still find themselves in hell. There'll be people who built companies who employed lots of other people who were very important when they were alive.

People who give lots to charity. I mystified when it happens. I saw, an interview the other day. I don't know if if you've seen it, it got caller of air time. It was a long interview, Graham Norton with Elton John.

And Elton John was talking about when he went through, a sort of program to come out of his addiction to, drink and drugs. And he said that when you're in that position, when you're going through that counseling, you're encouraged, to fill the gap. In your life. They even have a phase for it. He said it's called the hole in the doughnut.

How are you gonna fill the hole in the doughnut? How are you gonna, put something into your life that deals with the gap that's left by the removal of drink and drugs. And he talked about spirituality, and he talked about, you know, having a god or something like that, and he said that instead, he chose to give something back and he formed his aids foundation. And it has raised and given away, I think you said over 450000000 dollars so far. And that is all good stuff.

Except we know that good works don't get you to heaven. And people who do a lot of charitable stuff but have ignored god. We'll like many others, I think, be surprised to find themselves in hell. And that's the situation you see we find in this story, this parable that Jesus tells in chapter 16, It's powerful. It's a it's actually a pretty unforgettable story.

But let's just understand the context before we get really into those verses. Jesus is talking to the pharisees here. The pharisees were lovers of money. Now if you remember Tom Sherman, it was a few weeks back now because we've had cow services and so on. He was looking at the earlier bit of chapter 16 and the shrewd manager.

And that passage ended with verse 13. Just look up with me, chapter 16 verse 13. No 1 can serve 2 masters. Either you will hate the 1 and love the other, or you will be devoted to the 1 and despise the other. You cannot serve both god and money.

And then straight away, verse 14, the pharisees who loved money heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them Okay. He said to them and then keep your eye traveling down to 17 verse 1 Jesus said to his disciples. So everything between he said to them and Jesus said to his disciples, is aimed at the pharisees. He's talking to the pharisees.

And the bulk of all that is this story. And the point is to appreciate that not only would the rich man have been shocked to find himself in hell but the pharisees would have been equally shocked to see him there. Now why? Well, because the pharisees have a sort of had a sort of prosperity religion going, really. They saw poor people as being cursed by god.

And rich people as having been blessed by god. And of course, that theology conveniently allowed them to accumulate wealth. The more money you had, the more you were viewed as blessed by god, even to the extent that pursuing money could be seen as loving god and pursuing blessing. That was their argument. So as this story starts, they would have automatically seen the rich man dressed in purple as it said at the beginning.

He's gonna be the likely hero that I thought. He's the symbol of a god blessed life in Israel. And so they'd have been horrified at what happens to him. So let's start by focusing on the rich man specifically because he's the main character in the story. The beggar, you see, never speaks.

The beggar is silent. The beggar is there for contrast. The story is not about his experience in heaven. Did you notice that? We don't find out much about what it's like to experience heaven to be alongside somebody like Abraham.

We don't hear about the joy and the love and the peace that he feels when he gets to heaven. The focus is on the rich man. And how people perhaps unintentionally end up in hell. And certainly, it's about how hell is not a place that you want to be. The story starts first 19.

There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. Now that is a very similar opening to 16 verse 1. There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. It's very similar actually to 14 verse 16. Jesus replied a certain man was preparing a great banquet.

And even later on, 19 verse 12, He said a man of noble birth went to a distant country, so it is a typical opening for a parable. It's a typical opening for story where Jesus wants to convey a message, a point. So we're not supposed to take all of these stories if it's a actual thing and over analyze it. So for example, I don't think there's any evidence that people in hell can see people in heaven. I don't think there's any evidence that people in hell can shout across the divide and interrupt Abraham and people in heaven.

I don't think as some commentators argue that because the beggar is given a name, lazarus, And in other parables, there's never a name. This isn't a parable. It's a true story. There's no evidence of that. We're supposed to listen to this parable, this story, and get the big picture.

Get the main point. And it all revolves around the rich man. There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and finding in a lived in luxury every day That is a very extreme scenario. We're not talking somebody who's, you know, middle class and quite well off. We're talking immensely rich.

This is a man with electric gates, and this is a man with housekeepers and gardeners and probably a butler. And certainly a couple of Tesla's and a Ferrari for weekends. Close some designer labels, Egyptian cotton shirts only. That's the sort of wealth we've gotta get in our heads. Actually, I was I was at, I don't know whether you call party or not are gathering last night, Catherine Ira, in a house on Wimbledon common.

Very nice. But his big problem, the host's big problem in life, was the house 2 doors along, which you pass as you go in, and it has a Christmas tree in their yard, fun thing, which is like almost trafalgar square size. Unbelievable lit up. But our host big problem was the planning permission that they'd gone for to in this house. And I said, well, it's massive.

They can't what what are they extending? He said, no. No. No. The servant's quarters.

And I thought he was winding me up, and he wasn't. But that's what we're talking about here. It's that sort of wealth. So don't forget the listeners, particularly the pharisees, would have immediately respected this man. Soon as they heard the opening, they would have viewed him as blessed by god.

And when it says he lives in luxury, every day, it means all the time. Habitually. Now as a contrast, we have the second character of the story, verse 20, At his gate was laid a beggar named lazarus, covered with sores, and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table, even the dogs came and licked his sores. This man has nothing. He's destitute.

He's laid at the rich man's gate. Is covered with sores, which means a sort of oozing, open ulcerated skin. Now to give you a sense of how bad this man's condition is, the translation he's laid at the door is a massive understatement. It it really in the original language, he's saying he's thrown down there. You've got here a man at the very bottom of society who has nothing, who's paralyzed.

And although there are people who care for him, You see, there's an implication when it says he was thrown down that even, those people found his needs too great it was too relentless looking after him. And they dumped him at the gate each day, presumably for the express purpose, of the rich man seeing him and coming to his aid. 1 commentator, I thought this is a terrific line. He writes the Beggor was roadkill being licked by scavengers. That's the condition of the man.

But you see, the rich the poor man has 1 thing the rich man doesn't have in this story. Do you notice that? He has a name. Lasarus, Jesus, who's telling the story knows him. He knows his name.

He was irrelevant as far as his society was concerned. He was irrelevant as far as the Faracies were concerned, but as far as god was concerned, he had a name. It's important because the frightening thing is nobody needs a name in hell. You never know the rich man's name. So those are the 2 main characters, the rich man and lazarus, and their lives were very different.

But then we get what's often called the great reversal. That's our third point. The great reversal verse 22, The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades's where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with lazarus by his side.

That was the shocker of the story. In the pharisees minds, the rich man blessed by god respectable well off. Well, of course, he'd go to heaven. And the despise beggar to hell. Yet in the story, the absolute opposite happens.

The poor man Lazarus dies, and look at what it says, he's carried away by angels to heaven to be with Abraham. God sends his angels to gather up 1 of his own into glory. 1 amazing picture. And the rich man, well, he goes to Hades, and it says he's in torment. And actually, that's not a singular word as we read it.

It means torment Hayedys in the New Testament is the is a synonym for hell, but note that both of them reach their destination immediately. There's no waiting place, no transition, no soul sleep, straight to heaven or hell, the believer who dies is immediately in the fellowship and joy of heaven, and the rich man is immediately in hell tormented. It is a very sobering story. It is a warning for us. There is a hell and it's an agonizing experience and it's unrelenting.

Jesus then gives us this sort of imaginary conversation between the rich man and and Abraham, and it is an astonishing bit of dialogue. Father Abraham, this is 24. So he called to him father Abraham have pity 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 fire. See, firstly, the rich man pleads for mercy, but on what basis? Well, it's father Abraham.

He's appealing to him on the base of his Jewish heritage. And again, the pharisees would get that immediately. He is asserting himself as a child of Abraham and appealing to him as his spiritual father. Now clearly, the pharisees when they're listening to this or or perhaps us, and we don't click because probably because we don't know our bibles well enough. But Jesus, of course, knows.

Jesus remembers Luke chapter 3. Jesus remembers in a sense what John the Baptist was preaching. It's always amazing. I find when you're when you're doing a bible study and you see how it all fits together. Let me just read to you.

Luke chapter 3, this is John the Baptist talking, produce fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves we have Abraham as our father. For I tell you that out of these stones, god can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the tree and every root that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. The rich man Request from Abraham, what he was never willing to give lazarus when he needed it. He had no sympathy, no interest in, no compassion towards lazarus when he was suffering, but he expects to be treated very differently now that he needs help.

Jesus, in essence, you see, is saying to the pharisees, you think you're good You think you're religious. Well, how religious are you if you don't love your neighbor? You're saying to us, how Christian are you if you don't love your neighbor? The rich man passed him going in and out of his huge house and did nothing. Didn't help.

And although it's a minor element of the passage, there is an application for us there. You see, we'll all battle, won't we in our lives, and what comes out What wins those battles will show us where our hearts really are. For the rich man, the use of his money was a battleground but so was his lack of love? So was his lack of compassion. So just think about that for yourselves for a minute.

What are your battlegrounds? Are you winning them? Are you winning those battles in terms of your godliness? Look what he asked for. Send lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I'm in agony in this fire.

It's actually an astonishing request because the the rich man, his power, if you like, his wealth is so ingrained. He believes he's superior to lazarus, even though he's in hell. So what does he say? Send Lazarus He's a servant. He's a low life.

No repentance. No remorse. No seeking forgiveness. See, we can learn from this dialogue. How is not remedial.

Need to get that into our heads. Hel is a place of punishment. It reinforces. It doesn't fix you. It confirms you.

So unlike the examples I was giving at the beginning, the the sort of lighthearted ones, you know, when I was in the NCP car park, thinking why am I here? He never says, does he? The rich man has been a mistake because I think this is right. Doesn't ask for reconsideration, doesn't ask Abraham to get the paperwork out and just check. It hasn't been an error.

Doesn't ask to be excused from hell. Just wants a little bit of relief and his answer though to that is send lazarus. He's in nothing. Even that, of course, condemns him because he can't even claim that he never saw the man. He was driving so fast in and out.

Didn't see him. Can't be right. He knows his name. What the rich man displays here is 1 of the reasons I think it is and Jesus says it, it's hard to be rich and go to heaven because you so easily put your trust in money. And in the side effects that come with that, which is control of your life.

The rich man expects and is used to being in charge. And a lot of rich people are like that. It is probably what makes them successful in this life, actually. But it also makes them arrogant and self sufficient. Now, most of you will know.

I'm in my job. I look for invest in property investments for fairly wealthy people. Or institutions. So I come across a lot of people like this. They're all they do have this in common.

They want control. That they think their money buys them. I I some of the most ridiculous situations I've been in is where we're we're putting 2 people together who are both powerful and wealthy It's which who is gonna move to the other person's office for the meeting. It's unbelievable how long it takes to agree that. Because they want control.

I'm a I'm in a service industry. They ring me whenever they feel like it. And that's also part of the psyche. You know, we're servants. So if it's 7 there's 1 guy shoots go shooting when it's season every Saturday, rings me on the 7 AM, 7 30 on a Saturday morning.

Doesn't even occur to him that other people have got lives. It's extraordinary. I remember 1 guy asked me, this is I used to turn my mobile off as soon as I got home and that drove them mad. So he said, can I have your home number? And I thought, oh, I can't really say no because he's quite an important client, but so I reversed the last 2 digits so that he would think he'd written it down wrongly when he couldn't get through.

And it lasted for a good few weeks before he he were, you know, he woke up to the fact there was something wrong. He wasn't getting hold of me. But they're all the same. That's the characteristic that money gives them control. They want control.

And he's saying the same thing. Send lazarus. And when he's told, look, lazarus isn't bringing you water. He just moves on as if as if that hasn't been said. And he says, well, okay.

In this case, send lazarus to my brothers. It's the same thing. Still a servant in his head, send them to my family, to my 5 brothers, to warn them so that they don't end up here. And when again, Abraham says, no. We're not doing that.

He says verse 30. It's absolutely astonishing. He carries on arguing. No father Abraham. But if someone from the dead goes, then they will repent.

So now he's in hell arguing with Abraham. No. You've got it all wrong Abraham. If you send them, send lazarus to my brothers, then obviously they'll realize and they'll repent. Now, you come I come across those people as well all the time.

Same attitude. Basically, if you disagree with them, they're so superior in their own heads that they don't question themselves. What They just repeat what they've said because, obviously, you haven't understood if you disagree. And it goes on like that. He's saying to Abraham, no, no, no, you haven't understood me.

My brothers will repent if you send him, so send him. But remember how Abraham described this great reversal 25. Abraham replied, son, remember that in your lifetime, you received your good things. While lazarus receive bad things. So it's very important language.

We mustn't get the impression here that if you have a good life now, you're gonna have a bad life later and vice versa. It's not what I'm saying. When he says your good things, while when he's addressing the rich man, he's saying the priorities you had, the things you wanted, you've had. Where are they now? Gone with your life.

But about lazarus Abraham saying, while lazarus receive bad things, he doesn't say your bad things. There's no blame here. There's no indication that he deserved them or caused them by being his own worst enemy. The bad things happened. That's it.

See, aren't we so often like the pharisees Don't we look at somebody poor, somebody struggling, and we effectively blame them? Well, he didn't try hard enough at school. It didn't get good exams. Well, he's a low energy person, but he can't cope with any pressure in life. Yeah.

He's got no common sense. Doesn't save any money. We judge the poor, and we assume the rich are wise and clever and smart, But that's not what Jesus is saying in this passage. You see, the reversal here is so stark. Let me read you.

What 1 commentator wrote, I I think this is absolutely brilliant. I wish I thought of it, but I didn't. So I'll read you what they said. I think it's great. You have a poor man and a rich man.

The poor man then becomes rich and the rich man becomes poor. And the poor man becomes richer than the rich man ever was. And the rich man becomes poorer than the poor man ever was. You have a poor man on the outside of a house and you have a rich man on the inside. Then comes death.

And you have a poor man on the inside and a rich man on the outside. You have a poor man with no food, and a rich man with all the food he could possibly need. Then you have a poor man and a great heavenly banquet and a rich man with absolutely nothing. You have a poor man with needs, and a rich man with no needs. Then you have a poor man with no needs and a rich man with needs.

You have a poor man who desires everything. And a rich man who desires nothing. Then you have a rich man who will never have his desires fulfilled. And a poor man who has all his desires fulfilled. You have a poor man who suffers and a rich man who is satisfied.

Then you have a rich man who suffers and a poor man who's satisfied. You have a poor man who's who's tormented and a rich man who's happy. Then you have a poor man who's happy and a rich man who's tormented. You have a poor man who's humiliated and a rich man who is honored Then you have a rich man who's humiliated and a poor man who is honored. You have a poor man who wants a crumb.

A rich man who feasts. Then you have a poor man who's at a feast and a rich man who wants a drop of water. Isn't that amazing? The change in their situation is remarkable, and the scary thing is it is permanent. There's no changing back here.

There's no way back for the rich man once he's in hell. And so we get to the last point, really. How do we avoid hell? How do we avoid being like the rich man? See, the last request from the rich man, you know, the 1 where again, he's very condescending.

Send lazarus. It nevertheless does imply somewhere deep in him that he has some care for his brothers. He's saying warn them because I don't want them ending up here. And when Abraham says no, perhaps he's understood something at last, because he says if someone from the dead goes to them, they will pence. So at least he knows there's some need for repentance.

But it's no it's worth noting there's no repentance from him. See repentance isn't possible in hell, but Abraham's answer is They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them. Now that of course is exactly what the pharisees don't do and won't do and never do. Jesus says it a number of times, Matthew 13, he says you will ever you will be ever hearing, but never understanding. For this people's heart has become callous, they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.

Jesus hears talking to the pharisees and he's saying, look, You should have understood from Moses and the scriptures that substitution is the way god deals with sin, that there is a coming sacrifice that there is a coming Messiah, there's a coming savior who will provide redemption, who will be a suffering servant, and you should already be aware of those things. You should already know that you need to repent and believe. So listen. To Moses and the prophets. In other words, listen to scripture.

And it's interesting because what the rich man is basically arguing is what many of us argue today, which is scripture's not enough. It's not sufficient. We need more proof than that. We need somebody to come back from the dead in front of us. They'd be convinced says the rich man by someone rising from the dead.

Well, of course, history shows they weren't. In in his amazing sovereignty, Jesus raises somebody from the dead, not long after this, also called lazarus. That is not a coincidence. Lazarus here, lazarus gets raised from the dead. Are they convinced?

John 11, verse 53 from that day on, they they plotted to kill him. And not convinced, are they? Then he does it again. This time, god raises Jesus himself. Killed on a cross 3 days later he's resurrected.

Does this persuade them? Not at all. Still they don't believe their hearts are too hard. You see, the funny thing about this powerful is it shows us it's not enough just to want to avoid hell. I doubt many people wanna go to hell.

As I said at the beginning, some will be shocked But seeking to avoid it just because you don't wanna go there isn't enough. The rich man didn't wanna go there, I guess, but he did nothing about it. Didn't listen to Moses and the prophets. His heart was hard and that's where he finished up. The only way to avoid hell is to follow the path of salvation revealed by Moses and the prophets I e revealed in scripture.

And that means having faith in Jesus Christ as our lord and savior, and understanding that that has no requirement on us. Accept acceptance, accept putting your trust in him. No works needed. No charitable stuff. No religious rules.

We just need to open our minds and our hearts and accept Jesus Christ. See, there is no need to go to hell. Nobody here in this room needs to go to hell because we have the Bible. We have the revelation of Jesus Christ as our lord and savior. We've been given what we need to avoid it.

And it's to believe in him. If we listen to the word of god, we can go to heaven. That is the signpost to heaven. That is god's revelation to us. That is the way we're saved through the word.

And so we need to be careful when we suggest we might need more. When we suggest a scripture is not enough, when we suggest that preaching is an outdated method of communication, or that our sermons are too long. There is no other way of going to heaven There is no other way of keeping people from hell and eternal torment other than exposing them to the saving message of the Bible. So do you wanna escape hell? Do you wanna enter heaven then believe the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Revealed in his word and put your trust in Jesus. Will you do that? Or like the rich man, are you just gonna drive past and not think about it? Are you just gonna put your faith in your background? In his Jewish nesses in his case.

Are you gonna put your faith in your inheritance? Are you gonna put your faith in your wealth? Are you gonna put your faith in something else? Education, whatever it is. You're gonna put your faith in having control of your life.

When you die, will you end up where you expect? Or will you be shocked at what happens? Let's pray. Father, we thank you. It's such a in many ways a tough passage.

It is so hard hitting. And yet we need to hear it because the only way to you is through your word by your spirit, taking your word, putting it in us, helping us understand that you have done everything that's needed for us to be reconciled to god. And join you in heaven for eternity. Lord help us not to be people who are too confident in some ability we think we have or put our faith in works Lord help us not to be like the rich man, help us to be like lazarus. Father, we think about this great reversal, and it's it's such a powerful message.

Help us as we come to this season where we often meet with with friends and family, many of whom don't know you. Help us to pray for them. Help us to understand that the only way to avoid hell is not through doing stuff, it's through trusting in you. And lord help us to not only do that for ourselves, but speak out the truth that people in our workplaces and neighbors and all the people that we come in contact with that we'll know the only way to help them avoid hell is to bring them to know you. And lord give us courage to do that when we talk to people.

In Jesus' name, amen.