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Reading Luke 16:24-31 where Jesus continues the account of the rich man and a poor man named Lazarus, who both died and went to different places in the after-life. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
A man who was suffering in hell called out to Abraham in heaven and said if someone should tell my brothers, if someone should rise from the dead and warn my brothers of this awful place they won't come here.
And Abraham said if they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. When we understand the text.
This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study in the word of Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness. Find all our videos and other ministry resources at www .utt .com.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe.
Thank you Becky. We come back to our study of the Gospel of Luke chapter 16. We've been reading this account that Jesus shares of a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus who both die and what happens to them after that.
Let me read this again. I'll start in verse 19 and go to the end of the chapter. Hear the word of the Lord. There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day and at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus covered with sores who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table.
Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.
And he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things and Lazarus in like manner, bad things.
But now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been fixed in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able and none may cross from there to us.
And he said, then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may warn them lest they also come into this place of torment. But Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.
And he said, no, father Abraham, but if someone should go to them from the dead, they will repent. And he said to him, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.
And that's really the point of this account that Jesus is sharing here, that they must listen to Moses and the prophets and understand from the law and prophets who the Messiah.
Is.
If they won't hear Moses and the prophets on this, then they won't even be convinced that Jesus is the Messiah. Should he rise from the dead? We'll get to that point here in just a moment. But first to recap what we've considered thus far, we've split this up into three parts.
And in part one, we considered the context in which this account is given. The Pharisees were lovers of money. It says back in verse 14, but just because they were wealthy and held these positions of power, that did not automatically mean God's favor was upon them.
And therefore, by this, they knew that they were going to go to heaven. So Jesus tells them of this rich man who doesn't go to heaven, but instead he goes to a place of torment. So wealth was not automatically a sign that somebody was saved.
In other words, whereas the poor man, Lazarus had nothing, could not even eat the crumbs from the rich man's table. But no matter how destitute he was, God's favor was upon him and he received the place of Abraham's bosom, paradise, as we talked about.
And I also mentioned in part one that I do not think of this as a parable. First of all, the text doesn't call it a parable, but it also doesn't fit the qualities of a parable. Parables never mentioned anybody's name, but here you have Lazarus mentioned and Abraham, and there's a dialogue that occurs between the rich man and Abraham.
So no other parable even fits that kind of model. Therefore, I don't think we should be calling it a parable either. Jesus is actually telling a true account of something that happened. And who better to know about this than the one who came from the other side?
Now, I'm gracious whenever somebody does call this a parable, because a parable has one point to it. And this account, the reason why Jesus is telling it, it has one point to it. We got to be careful not to overanalyze these things, but just look for the main point.
There's some things that we can certainly glean from this as we learn about the afterlife, perhaps. There's nowhere else that we see this kind of exchange taking place anywhere else in the Bible. So there's things we can learn from it.
But really, we're looking for the point. Why is Jesus telling this and what are we to learn from it as well? So in that sense, yeah, that fits the pattern of a parable, but nothing else. Nothing else shares the qualities of a parable.
So this is a true story that Jesus is telling to make a central point. Now, that was in part one. But then part two, we considered these two locations that these men go to. The rich man dies and he goes to a place of torment, Hades, which can also be translated the grave.
But in particular, we see that this is a place of flame in which the rich man gets no relief. He's even able to communicate with Abraham, who's on the other side, a place that we also refer to as paradise.
Abraham's bosom is how the Jews knew it. And Lazarus is there with Abraham. And somehow the rich man and Abraham are able to have this conversation. Now, as I said, in part two, we should be careful about thinking this.
Thinking of this is absolutely literal because we won't be able to communicate with others on the other side in the afterlife. We're not going to be able to look into hell and have conversations with our loved ones that ended up there.
Of course, it wouldn't be loved ones in that sense anymore, but we won't be able to converse.
With them.
So however this translates out, you know, whatever way that Jesus is sharing this account, he knows what happened and this is how he is communicating it. We should not get these illusions that we can somehow have these conversations from our place in heaven with somebody in hell or that though a friend of ours may go to hell that they can still talk to us from there.
That's not what we're supposed to glean from this. So nonetheless, we do have this dialogue here. And what are we to make of this dialogue? And that's what we're going to consider as we come back to this.
Three exchanges that happened between the rich man and Abraham. The rich man says something, Abraham responds. So let's look at these together. I'm coming back to verse 24. So you have the rich man in a place of torment.
Lazarus is at Abraham's side. Lazarus never says anything in this account. We don't have any quotes from him, but we do have this back and forth between Abraham and the rich man. And I find it interesting that the rich man knows who Abraham is.
He looks into heaven from where he is and he identifies this man that Lazarus is with as Abraham. Now, how would he have known that? I don't know. Again, there are some things here that Jesus is telling us, or at least Jesus is saying to his disciples in the Pharisees, we're eavesdropping in on the conversation and through the Holy Spirit coming to understand what's being communicated and how it applies to us.
But again, be careful about overanalyzing these kinds of things. All we're led to know is that the rich man knows Abraham and begins to talk with him. So he called out, verse 24, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue.
And we don't know in what condition the rich man or Lazarus are in here. Is Lazarus having dinner with Abraham? Does he have a cup of water in his hand? Is Abraham giving him water, like rejuvenating this guy because he spent his life poor and had sores all over his body?
I don't know. Again, speculating, but whatever the case may be, the rich man is asking for water to be cooled in the flame in which he sits. Have him dip his finger in water, touch my tongue with it because I'm in anguish here in this flame.
And here's Abraham's response to him, child. So the first thing he says is child. So we know this man had to be a Jew and it had to have been an occasion of something that happened fairly recently, at least we're led to believe.
So that even the rich man might perhaps be recognized. This account that Jesus is telling, maybe it's something that's familiar to the people listening to it. Like I remember this. I remember Lazarus, that poor man and the gate that he was sitting at.
So this must be the rich man that Jesus is talking about. Why the rich man's name is not given, we can only speculate about that. As I've said before, it could be because centers are blotted out of God's book.
The wicked that are cast into the place of fiery torment. And so maybe that's the reason why Lazarus in the meantime is revived and taken to that place where he lives forever. So he, he continues to live on at Abraham's side, whereas the rich man is in eternal death as it would be.
Nonetheless, he's a descendant of Abraham. So Abraham calls him child. Remember that you in your lifetime received your good things and Lazarus in like manner, bad things. So again, the reason why Abraham calls him child as well, the reason why Jesus is sure to include that is because the Pharisees again would have thought that they were automatically going to go into the kingdom of God being children of Abraham.
And so here you have a child of Abraham, lest any of them say, oh, well, he must have been, you know, maybe this rich guy was a pagan. Maybe he was one of the Gentiles. Maybe he was one of the Romans that lived among us or something like that.
No, he's referred to as child. So this was a descendant of Abraham that still ends up in this place of torment. In your lifetime, you got good things, Lazarus, bad things. And Abraham says to him, remember, remember in your life, you had your good things.
Like that's the only comfort that the suffering in hell will have a memory of how, how much better things were here on this side of the afterlife. And no matter how bad things get in this world, for those who are evil and rebellious against God, this world is still the best heaven they will ever get.
It's the only heaven they will ever, ever receive. Whereas for us who are in Christ Jesus, this world is the only hell we will ever go through. It will never get worse than this. It will always and only be better in the eternal kingdom of God when we inhabit it, when we dwell there forever with God in glory.
We will be in a place where all of this suffering and death and sickness and sin and all these other things that we go through here in this life, it will be no more. As said in Revelation 21, he will wipe every tear from their eyes and death will be no more looking forward to that day.
But in the meantime, as we are here on this earth, this is the worst that it ever gets. It's as bad as it will ever get for a Christian. So you can take comfort in that. But for those who are not believers, this is the best it will ever be.
So Abraham is saying to this rich man, remember what you had in your lifetime as the only comfort you're going to get. And it's not any comfort at all. You got your good things in life, Lazarus and like man are bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish.
Now another thing I said about the two destinations of these men, we don't need to assume what they did that led them there. Just because the rich man was rich, that's not why he ends up in hell. Just because Lazarus was poor, that's not why he gets to go to heaven.
The judgment upon them is really not mentioned here. We understand that from other passages of scripture, that those who believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ will live forever. Those who did not believe in Jesus will not live, but will be cast into hell.
And that's ultimately the point here, as I said, because when we get to the last sentence, the last thing that Abraham says, if you're believing Moses and the prophets, then you'll know who the Messiah is and you'll believe in him who rises from the dead and you likewise will rise from death.
So going on from here, besides this, Abraham says, between us and you, a great chasm has been fixed in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able. So even if I granted that Lazarus could dip his finger in water and come and cool your tongue, you wouldn't be able to do it.
Again, as you're trying to picture this and trying to envision the scene, how is it that this rich man's in torment and can communicate with Abraham? How much distance is there between the two of them?
What is this chasm like? These things again, we don't know, but we will have a clear picture of it when we get to the other side, right? So there's a chasm so that we can't come there to you and none on your side may cross from there to us.
And then the rich man said, then I beg you father. So here's the second exchange. That's been the first request and answer. And here is the second request. Then I beg you father to send him to my father's house for I have five brothers so that he may warn them lest they also come into this place of torment.
So his brothers are unaware of this place. And as much as this might've been talked about among the Jews, the rich man was not fearful of ending up in this place either. Now if he had been listening to Moses and the prophets, he would know of it and he would know how he could be rescued from it.
But he did not listen to them because that's Abraham's response. Abraham said they have Moses and the prophets let them hear them. So through Moses and the prophets, we come to understand eternal rewards of heaven or hell and the savior who forgives us the sin that would otherwise condemn us to hell.
If left in that condition, we've all sinned against God. What we all deserve is judgment and to be cast into a place of fiery torment for all eternity. That's what every one of us deserves. Even from the Old Testament, we can glean that truth.
But instead, what we receive in Christ is the forgiveness of our sins being made right with God and we become fellow heirs with him of the eternal kingdom that he has been granted by the father. All the law and the prophets point to Christ who fulfills this.
And so if the Pharisees had been listening to it, then they would know who Jesus is. If the rich man had been listening to it, then he would know of this place and the way that he lived was in rebellion against God.
Now he may not have been able to know the savior in his lifetime, but he would have had a hopeful expectation of the savior, just like Abraham had, just like Moses had. And it's through that belief, that faith in what God was going to provide, that would be his salvation.
We've always been saved by grace through faith, whether in the Old Testament or in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the faithful saints were looking toward a deliverer who was to.
Come.
And here on this side of the cross, we're looking back at the deliverer who came, died, rose again, ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God, is coming back again to judge the living and the dead.
We look to him and put our faith in him for the forgiveness of our sins and the promise of everlasting life. So if the rich man had been listening to the prophets, if he had even understood the law, then he would have understood what God required and what he needed in order to be saved.
He's begging Abraham to have Lazarus go to his brothers so that he may warn them of this awful place and therefore they won't come here. But just knowing about the existence of heaven and hell is not going to be the thing that's going to save you from that eternal place of torment.
Now notice here that I think I've drawn this out before, but the rich man is communicating with Abraham. He's not talking with God. Being in that place of torment, he does not get to commune with God.
So there's no exchange, no conversation that he has with the almighty, only with Abraham. And Abraham tells him, testifies to him of the truth that he did not believe in his lifetime. Now, Jesus, I believe, does this same thing when he rises from the dead and he testifies to those spirits in prison, as talked about in first Peter, it's that same sort of a thing.
So the kind of exchange that we see Abraham having with the rich man might be the kind of exchange that Jesus would have had with those who were in that place and showing them, this is what you wouldn't believe.
And now it's been accomplished, but you're going to remain there. And all those who were faithful to God and trusted in him all this time would be in this place of paradise with the savior. Remember Jesus saying to the thief on the cross that was next to him, today you will be with me in paradise.
Now I had listened to a preacher just recently who was giving an evangelistic message based on this account. So he was reading the account of the rich man and Lazarus, and then he was talking about evangelism.
And this was a preacher that I admire, I respect. But one of the conclusions that he drew from this account, I just did not agree with him. He said that the rich man is begging for somebody to tell my brothers, have Lazarus go back and tell my brothers, can't anybody tell my brothers.
And the evangelist was drawing out from this lesson and was saying, see, there's going to be people in hell that are going to be begging. If someone had just told me, if someone had told the rich man, then he would have believed and he wouldn't have ended up in that place.
And the preacher, as he's preaching about this, he's even, you know, he's choking up and he's got tears running down his face. And I'm listening to him do that. And I just, I don't agree. That's not the point.
There are other places that we can draw from to make that point. As a matter of fact, you can go to Romans nine, where the apostle Paul talks about how grieved he is in his heart for his brothers who won't believe the gospel.
And even to the point of tears for them, he wishes that they would repent and believe. And then makes the point in chapter 10 of how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news of the gospel of peace.
So there's another place in scripture you could have made that point from. That's not the point of this account between the rich man and Lazarus, because Abraham is essentially telling the rich man, you did know, you knew.
You heard it taught in the, in the synagogues through Moses and the prophets, you wouldn't listen to them. Maybe he didn't even go to synagogue. That's, that's even all the more judgment. Well, that's on you because the oracles of God had been given to the Jewish people and they were recited every Sabbath in the synagogue.
So why wasn't he listening to Moses and the prophets? If he had been listening to them, then he would have been delivered. He would have known the truth and he would have been delivered from this awful place, but he did not listen.
So the point is not if somebody had just told me, that's, that's not the point. He was told and didn't believe, and he had, he had every ability to have heard and believed, but didn't yet the rich man persists.
No father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. And this is, this is like the rich man is appealing to necromancy. Like can't a ghost, a spirit of some kind, can't someone from the dead just appear to my brothers and warn them of this place, then they won't end up here.
And it doesn't have anything to do with telling them the truth. Like even in his place of torment, the rich man is still not trusting in God's word. Do you notice that they have Moses and the prophets?
No.
Yeah.
See, that's why you're here. You wouldn't listen to God's word as given through Moses and the prophets. You did not trust what the Lord said. And that's why you've ended up here. And there are so many making that same kind of excuse.
And God's word is not enough. I need this. Maybe if someone, if I could speak with somebody on the other side. Yeah. There are religions that do that. Don't they? Even the Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox communicate with people on the other side.
They pray to the dead instead of praying to God. And they also believe that they need all these other things in order to forgive them of their sins. And maybe they will get to go to heaven to be with God.
Just consider this gal named Cassie online had shared the following. My priest told me these five daily habits that will get you to heaven. The daily rosary, 15 minutes of Bible reading, frequent use of holy water, three Hail Marys in the morning and evening fasting throughout the week.
None of that will get you into heaven. None of that will save you. And if you're relying on those things in order to be saved, then you're going to end up in the same place with the rich man saying, no, not Moses and the prophets.
What about all these other things?
What if I just did this, this and this?
Can I go back and do this? And then I can get myself out of here. It was never about that. It was about hearing God's word and believing it. And you will be saved. Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
And back to Ephesians two, eight and nine. Again, it is by grace. You have been saved through faith and this not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. You know, even among professing Christians, among evangelicals, there's here's necromancy as Sue's saying, and, and, uh, what's called heaven tourism.
So those who die and they go see heaven and then they come back and they write a bestselling book about it. And I tell you, not one of those persons saw the other side and came back to write about.
It.
I do believe that they saw something, or at least some of them saw something. Some of them probably saw nothing. But since I had this near death experience, I'm going to capitalize on it somehow, but they did not go to heaven and they did not see heaven.
And strangely absent from all of these accounts of heaven are glorious visions of Christ, which is really what heaven is all about. It's being able to go to the place where God lives and dwelling with him and worshiping him forever.
That's what makes heaven amazing. But that's not what we're hearing about from these heaven tourists who come and write their books. We don't need those books because near death experiences don't save anybody.
If they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, they won't be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. Let me give you another example of this. Andy Stanley, in his apologetic, he is so often saying that we don't need the Bible in order to be Christians, that instead you just need to know that Jesus rose from the.
Dead.
That's what it all comes back to for Stanley. He claims that you don't need to know the Bible. You just need to know the resurrection. Well, how do we know about the resurrection? Because it's in the Bible.
It is a flawed argument that commits suicide every time he makes it. No matter how many times somebody has pointed this out to him, he still repeats it over and over and over again. He thinks it is. It's the linchpin argument that's going to convince somebody.
But Jesus is saying right here. That if they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, Stanley has said things like you don't have to believe in the sixth day creation. You don't have to believe in the story of Jonah.
You don't have to believe in David and Goliath. You don't have to believe in anything that happened in the Old Testament. You just need to believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead. And if a man can predict his own resurrection and then does it well, then that's somebody that you should believe in and listen to.
But again, if they're going to cut two thirds of the Bible out and go, OK, I couldn't believe that anyway, so I'll just put my faith in Jesus. No, if they don't believe Moses and the prophets, they won't believe in Jesus.
Never met such a person, by the way. I've never met anyone who just didn't believe the Old Testament, but believe that Jesus was the son of God incarnate who died on the cross and rose again from the dead.
That's a fictional person. I've never I've never met such a person, even if they say, well, I believe Jesus died for my sins and rose from the dead. Yeah, ask them about that. And you're going to find all kinds of wonky heresies that they believe they'll pay lip service to this Christian belief, but nothing else in the Bible do they believe.
Therefore, they don't really believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead. There's there's always caveats to that. We know this from God's word. And this is essentially what Abraham is telling the rich man is that you should have trusted God's word.
And if you don't believe Moses and the prophets, you won't even believe. That someone should rise from the dead. God's word is everything that we have. This is how God speaks to us through the Bible. This is how we get to know the mind of God, his will, what he has done for us, what he has promised to us.
It's right here in the pages of scripture. And every other person, no matter how high they may sit or low they are on the earth, rich man or poor man doesn't matter. Every single person must submit to the authority of God's word.
And it is only by believing this that a person can have forgiveness of sins and everlasting life with God will enter into glory and paradise with God himself dwelling with him forever. And we'll stay out of that place of fiery torment.
My friends, we got one opportunity at this, and that's right now. And don't let the time pass by, but put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and live and share this message with somebody else. If they reject you, remember, it's not you that they're rejecting.
It's God's word. Heavenly father, we thank you for what we have read. And I pray that we take it to heart and even live according to these things that we have.
Read.
We believe that Jesus died on the cross, that he rose from the dead, that he ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God, is coming back again to judge the living and.
The dead.
All who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. And now believing this, we must consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. So we don't walk in our sinful ways anymore, but we desire the righteousness of Christ that you clothe us in whenever we come to faith in Jesus.
So as said in Psalm 23, lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake, and give us courage to share this message with others that they too may turn from their sin to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and live.
It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study when we understand the text.