Dives & Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31 - Part 1)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

Whether the Rich Man and Lazarus Is a Parable or a True Story

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Here in Luke 16, we read about the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Now, I have to be upfront.

Some people believe that this is a parable. After all, it starts out like the other parables in the gospel of Luke. There was a certain man. That's how the other parables start. That's how this starts.

So, some people do believe that this is not a historical event, that Lazarus wasn't an actual person, that this is just a story. But, most people that I know take the view that this is indeed a true story.

The main argument that this is not a parable is that in the parables of Jesus, the characters never had names. It was a certain man. But here, the man has a name. And his name, the beggar's name, is what?

Lazarus. So, based on that, that's how I'm going to approach this message that this man, Lazarus, really lived. And that the rich man, he also was a real person. This is a real story. So, Lazarus has a name.

The rich man, does he have a name? Yes. What is it? I don't know. Okay. Well, yes and yes. He does have a name. We don't know it. Nice. Nice. Historically, he has been called Divies. So, that might be familiar to you.

It might not. But really, Divies, as he has historically been known, Divies in Latin just means rich, or rich man. So, that's technically not his name, if you have heard that. So, this is the story of the rich man and Lazarus, or Divies and Lazarus.

And even if you thought it was a parable, you still have to ask the question, what is Jesus trying to say? What is Jesus trying to communicate? One thing that comes across very, very clear is this. The decisions we make in this life have eternal consequences.

And once a person slips out into eternity, it's fixed. Things are fixed. There are second chances in life. People get second chances in life. But nobody gets a second chance after they die. That, I believe, is the point of the story.

So, let's begin reading Luke 16, starting in verse 19. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.

Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torment in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.

Then he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and likewise Lazarus evil things.

But now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.

Then he said, I beg you, therefore, Father, that you would send him, Lazarus, to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.

And Abraham said to him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, No, Father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead.

And may the Lord add a blessing to the reading of his word. So this is a weighty passage, this is a sober topic. Verses 19 and 20 starts out by giving us a great contrast. You have the rich man and you have Lazarus.

The rich man was living what you could say an opulent lifestyle. And then you add this poor beggar who is basically surviving off of table scraps. You couldn't get more of a contrast. The rich man was clothed in purple, and that might not seem all that significant to you, except that back then those who wore the color purple, purple was reserved for royalty.

The average person never would have even had the opportunity to wear the color of purple. It was very, very expensive. Maybe some of you remember in the book of Acts chapter 16, it mentions Lydia, who was a seller of purple.

So this was very high-end fabric and clothing. You know, it would be like today somebody, I bought my suit at Target, okay? So it wasn't that expensive, but it would be like somebody wearing a $3 ,000 or a $5 ,000 Armani suit.

I don't wear a watch, but some people, you know, there are some preachers who will wear, well, that's another story. But there will be some preachers who, some people, sorry, there will be some people who will wear a Rolex that costs $10 ,000, $15 ,000, $20 ,000, and it just goes up from there.

If you can spend that kind of money on a suit or a watch, I mean, that's a statement. That says something. Well, that's kind of what's going on here with the rich man. He's wearing purple to show everybody, hey, I'm basically royalty.

I'm up here. This man had more than enough money to help someone in need. And here is this poor beggar right outside at his front gate. So you see this contrast. Now, what did the rich man do for Lazarus?

Well, he really didn't do anything. He didn't seem to care about him. He basically allowed Lazarus to eat, as the scripture puts it, crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. But what would we call this?

We would call this compost. You know, this is like garbage. If you take something, throw it on the floor, you've heard of the five-second rule. Some of you abide by that. Depends on the floor, maybe, what it is on the floor.

Typically, you throw it away. So what is he doing? He's not doing anything for Lazarus. He's letting him eat out of his dumpster. That's basically what's happening. So it's very clear there's no compassion from this rich man.

Even though Lazarus was crippled, he's not some freeloader looking for a handout. I mean, Lazarus is unable to walk. He has no means to support himself. And yet the rich man doesn't care. And besides that, he was covered with sores.

So if there was ever a person that you would think someone would extend sympathy to, it was Lazarus. And then it says the dogs would come and lick his sores. You know that animals, it's been said that dogs are a man's best friend, right?

Some of you believe that. Some of you are cat people. You don't agree with that. But, you know, I'm trying to lighten the mood a little because this is, we're going to get into some very, ultimately this is a sermon on people dying and going to hell, and there's no way out.

Very serious topic. But the dogs today, they're pets. They're domesticated. They're cute. You like dogs. We all like dogs, most of us. That's not the way it was back in Israel. Dogs were considered unclean.

The Jews hated dogs. They were scavengers. When Jews wanted to insult somebody, they would call them dogs. The Gentiles were what? Dogs. So the fact that the dogs came and showed kindness, they really were Lazarus' best friend.

Nobody else seemed to care. Only these despised wild animals. So this is the great contrast between the rich man and Lazarus. Look at verse 22. So it was that the beggar, Lazarus, died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom.

And the rich man also died and was buried. So now we're starting to see another contrast. It seems as though everything has switched. Everything has switched. Instead of Lazarus suffering, now he's being comforted.

And the rich man, who is in torment, now the rich man turns into the beggar. And now he's begging Abraham, send Lazarus, do this, please give me some relief. So the tables have turned. Can't help but think of what Jesus said.

The first shall be last and the last shall be first. So the rich man now turns to Abraham for help. Lazarus, a Jew, this is why he's called the son of Abraham, he's pictured as leaning on Abraham's breast.

That's what it means, his bosom. So can you think of another person in scripture who leaned on someone's breast or bosom? Who is it? Right, the apostle John, that disciple whom Jesus loved at the last supper, he leaned on Jesus on his breast or his bosom.

So here's the picture. Lazarus, instead of being this poor beggar that nobody in the world cared about, now he is described as an honored guest for one of the greatest, or perhaps the greatest of all biblical characters.

He has a seat right next to Abraham. So Lazarus dies, and this is where he goes. He's comforted. But then the rich man dies and is buried. And what happens to the rich man? Well, it says that he goes to this place of torment.

So he gets torment, Lazarus gets tranquility. The Jews in the first century talked about the future state of blessedness. They didn't really talk like we do today. We talk about heaven and hell, and that's just common language for Christians.

And that was still true in a sense, even back then, but that's not the words they used. The Jews would talk about a place of blessedness in the afterlife a few different ways. They either talked about paradise or Abraham's bosom.

So Abraham's bosom is really a synonym for paradise, means the same thing. And just to go back to Lazarus for a moment, how did Lazarus get to paradise? How did Lazarus get to Abraham's bosom? He was carried by the angels.

You know, I'm really surprised in all my years of listening to sermons, reading the Bible, reading commentaries, it doesn't appear this is formulated into a Christian doctrine, I'm not sure why, that when a person dies, they are carried by the angels to paradise.

I mean, that's what it says. This was a common Jewish belief at that time. And Jesus seems to affirm it. That when a believer dies, we've all heard of guardian angels. I think there is a verse that would support such an idea that when a believer dies, perhaps angels are standing by, waiting to transport their soul from earth to paradise.

I don't know about you, but that's a great comfort. Jesus does seem to affirm that. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Moores Corner Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, moorescornerchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.