Focus on the Afterlife Luke 16 Vs 19-31

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We have two hymns today that ask questions, and that's one of the types of hymns that we have.

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There's some questions to ask. The first song that we're going to sing is Are You Washed? The first verse is asking,

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Are you saved? That's really what it's asking. The second verse asks, Are you walking daily by the

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Savior's side? How's your Christian walk? And the next verse says,

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When the bridegroom cometh. And I stop for a second and say, I've had several people say to me,

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What's the deal about the bridegroom? The scripture talks about you and I as the church.

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We are the bride of Christ. Did you know that you are a bride of Christ? And so it talks about when the bridegroom cometh, are you going to be ready?

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What does a bride do before the wedding? She makes sure that there's not a spot or wrinkle anywhere, right?

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And so that's what this verse is. So there's this verse, this song asks a question.

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So stand together with me and think of the words as we sing together. Good morning.

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This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Today's scripture reading is from the book of Revelation.

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Revelation chapter 20 verses 11 through 15.

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Revelation chapter 20 verses 11 through 15.

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And I saw a great white throne in him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.

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And it was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.

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And the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life.

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And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.

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And the sea gave up the dead which were in it. And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.

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And they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.

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This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

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May the Lord add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word. Harold's going to come and help me on this song.

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But I want to say a word first of all. When we talk, this next song is called

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The Great Judgment Morning. It's a new song. It was written in 1884. So, but it's talking about the great judgment morning.

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And I wanted to say a word. When I read the scriptures as I understand it, there's going to be two resurrections and two judgments.

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The first resurrection is for the Christian saints. And the Lord says that he will judge us, but it's not for salvation.

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It's judging us for the works that we've done as saved individuals. And there will be, it's the scripture talks about being rewards and losses for what we didn't do.

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But then it talks, and I believe my understanding, at the end of the thousand year reign, the

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Lord will have what is called the great white throne judgment. And at that, what he just read this morning in the scripture was speaking of the great white throne judgment.

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All of those that come up to be judged at that time are unbelievers, whether they were morally good or not, but they said we had no time for Jesus.

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That's the second resurrection. They will be resurrected, but judged.

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And as you read in that scripture, he just read cast into hell. So this hymn is a warning.

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Make sure you're in the first resurrection. Make sure you've responded to the Lord. See And swore with this hand raised to heaven

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That time was no longer to be The rich man was there, but his

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A pauper he stood in the judgment His debts were too heavy to pay

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The great man was there, but his greatness

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When death came was left far behind The angel that opened the wrath

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Not a trace of his greatness could find

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And oh, what a weeping and wailing

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As the lost were told of their fate And the mountains they prayed

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But their prayer was too late

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The moral man came to the judgment

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But his self -righteous rags would not do

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The men who had crucified Jesus Had passed off as moral men too

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The soul that had put off salvation Not tonight,

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I'll be saved by and by No time now to think of religion

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At last they had found time to die

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And oh, what a weeping and wailing

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As the lost were told of their fate

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Very sobering, right? So that hymn is a warning

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This next hymn is another hymn with questions Do you have any room for Jesus?

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So stand together with me as we sing Please turn with me to Luke chapter 16

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Verses 19 through 31 Luke chapter 16, verses 19 through 31

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There was a certain rich man Who was clothed in purple and fine linen

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And fared sumptuously every day But there was a certain beggar Named Lazarus, full of sores

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Who was laid at his gate Desiring to be fed With the crumbs which fell

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From the rich man's table Moreover, the dogs came And licked his sores

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So it was that the beggar died And was carried by the angels To Abraham's bosom The rich man also died

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And was buried And being in torment in Hades He lifted up his eyes And saw

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Abraham afar off And Lazarus in his bosom Then he cried and said,

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Father Abraham, have mercy on me And send Lazarus that he may dip The tip of his finger in water

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And cool my tongue For I am tormented in this flame But Abraham said,

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Son, remember that in your Lifetime you received Your good things And likewise

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Lazarus evil things But now he is comforted And you are tormented And besides all this

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Between us and you There is a great gulf fixed So that those who want to pass From here to you cannot

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Nor can those from there Pass to us Then he said,

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I beg you Therefore father that you would send Him to my father's house For I have five brothers that he may testify

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To them lest they also come To this place of torment Abraham said to him,

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They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them And he said, no

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Father Abraham, but if One goes to them from the dead They will repent But he said to him

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If they do not hear Moses and the prophets Neither will they be persuaded Though one rise from the dead

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This is the word of the Lord Let us pray Gracious father

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We are grateful to be Studying this passage We pray that you would help

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Us to feel the urgency Of what's coming after Our life And help us to Understand your word

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And more importantly help us To understand The mercy of Christ That he

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Would die for our sins So that we would not have to Suffer the wrath that we deserved

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That we may be Forgiven and adopted into your family Help us

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To see The magnificent Grace that Jesus Has given us through his death

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And resurrection Help us to appreciate that More importantly help us

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To live that In Jesus name we pray Amen We return back to Luke now

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For the past two weeks We were in John For the resurrection Sunday And Palm Sunday So I would like to Go over what just Happened in Luke Because we have to read

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Luke 16 In the context of Luke Remember the

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Pharisees Have rejected Jesus' call To respond in faith They saw

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Jesus' miracles They dined with Jesus Yet they did not want

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Anything to do with Jesus Not only that When Jesus taught that We have to completely devote ourselves

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To God rather than For example money The Pharisees Mocked him

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They scoffed at him because They themselves were lovers of money Now before we delve into this text

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This text is not about The rich versus the poor This text is not about Communist manifesto

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After all The rich man in Torment Believes that his brothers who are also wealthy

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Could avoid the Torment If they repent It's not the wealth that is the problem

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It's the sin And furthermore we will see in Luke 19

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The chief tax collector Zacchaeus who is a very wealthy man He will be

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Saved when Jesus visits his house Again it is not

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A simplistic picture Of rich men bad And poor men good In this particular case the rich man

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Happens to be an unrepentant sinner And we will see How unrepentant he is

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But it is not The wealth that makes someone wicked It is that someone

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Who is wicked who has wealth Turns out to be very Not compassionate and uncaring

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The text here is about The importance of responding to God's Word in faith while we have the chance

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What the text shows us

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That there is a time In which after our life In which repentance is not an option

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In fact Those who are in torment Do not actually show any evidence

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That they do want to repent We went over this with Bible study on prayer

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Often times people think of God As this angry person In heaven who is telling

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Those in hell no no no You can't come up here As if he is

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Some stingy man Who is So vigorously guarding

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The gates of heaven However that is not the picture at all

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All throughout the Bible Those who end up in hell Do not even think about repenting

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It is not that they are Begging on their knees Oh how I wish I had repented In my lifetime

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But rather They are unrepentant

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And what is important here Is that the rich man Did not end up in the place of Torment because of his wealth

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It is because how he spent his wealth In Israel in the

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Old Testament Those who have Were commanded to care

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For those who don't And the reason is Not for the sake of equity

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What this culture says It is so that The people of God Would reflect the merciful

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And gracious character of God By caring for those who can't And that was actually

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The fruit The evidence that they actually Belong to God People who belong to God Are generous like God And after all

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When you help those who cannot Pay you back And of course you are not Proclaiming about it

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And publishing how great you are But when you help those who Cannot pay back

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You are actually doing this Motivated by your genuine faith In God Rather than this expectation

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That you would be paid back With interest Because after all The poor, the lame

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And the orphans, the widows They cannot pay back So in this regard

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It's not self -motivated But rather it's selfless It's God -motivated

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And that's what the rich man Was supposed to do If he had believed in God In the end

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How we treat the least of God's people Reveals our true priorities And our hearts

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And this text teaches us We need to urgently

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Respond To the call of God To believe

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And to live in that faith The main point of this text

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Is that we must selflessly live According to God's revelation Looking forward to the afterlife

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We must selflessly live According to God's revelation Looking forward to the afterlife

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First How we live on earth Determines whether we are blessed

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Or tormented for all eternity How we live on earth Determines whether we are blessed

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Or tormented for all eternity The first three verses

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Introduce the characters Of Jesus' story This story is very unique Because in many parables

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It starts with The narrator telling us That Jesus spoke in a parable This one doesn't

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Second In all the parables We've seen so far None of the characters are named

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This one has A character who is named It's the poor man Lazarus Because of that People have been debating

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Whether this is a parable Or is this a real story Regarding Lazarus And with that in mind

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We read this story There was a certain rich man Who was clothed in purple

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And fine linen And fared sumptuously Every day

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Although the rich man Is the main character Of this story We do not learn of his name

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This story is a negative example This is what you do not want to be The rich man is not

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What you want to be His identity is only marked By his wealth And maybe perhaps

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That's one way of saying That's all he cared about That's where he found His identity

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That's who he was He was just a rich man Now we get to see

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His lavish lifestyle First by what he wore And then

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What he ate The purple clothes were Extremely expensive

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And as some of you know If you've been here for Exodus Where we did go over Purple and blue coloring

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For the building of the tabernacle We know that purple Colored dye

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Required Thousands of sea snails Literal snails

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And their liquid Dyed the fabric purple To dye one garment purple

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You needed thousands And that Is an expensive venture

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So to be wearing purple Clothes back then It meant status

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Purple was prada Of the ancient world Not only is his outer garment fancy His inner garment

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Is fine linen While some people Could barely get themselves

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Dressed in any clothing This rich man's undergarments Were even extravagant

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Now the rich man's Body was not only covered

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By the fancy things But also was filled With fancy feasts

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He feasted Sumptuously Think filet mignon And ribeye steaks

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From outside to inside His life exemplified luxury The next two verses

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Describe the other character Also in the same order Of the outside and inside But there was a certain beggar

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Named Lazarus full of sores Who was laid at his gate If this is a parable

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This is the only parable In which a character Is given a name Hence some people believe

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Lazarus was a real person And Jesus is able to tell this story

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Because he is from heaven He knows what afterlife is like In fact

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Jesus talks about hell and heaven More so than any other character In the Bible And that's because He is

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God While the rich man was covered

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In extravagance Lazarus was covered in sores Think ulcers or abscess

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Painful and popping Not only that He was laid at the rich man's gate

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By the fact The fact that the rich man has a gate Shows that he lived in a mansion

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In the Bible The temple has a gate The temple has gates

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Palaces have gates Well apparently This rich man has a gate too

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While the rich man Lived in his mansion Some people had to lay Lazarus by the gate

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Remember The passive verb here He was laid there Which means Lazarus himself Did not even place himself there

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Someone else did it out of pity Oh maybe if I just put him near the rich man

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Maybe maybe he will see Lazarus and the rich man Might give him something to eat

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Or this shows that Lazarus either was extremely impoverished That he couldn't get to the gate himself

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Or he was crippled He couldn't get there himself He was someone

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Who couldn't help himself He was completely helpless Now verse 21 further

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Unfolds Lazarus' sorry state Desiring to be fed With the crumbs which fell

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From the rich man's table Moreover the dogs came And licked his sores

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The crumbs Were pieces of bread That were often given to the animals Of the house

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Because they no longer really needed those crumbs While the rich man

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Feasted every day There would have been many many crumbs

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And Lazarus Just wanted to be treated Like one of his animals Lazarus did not need an invitation

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To the feast He just wanted some scraps Not only that The wild dogs licked

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Lazarus This is not that the dogs Felt sorry for him After all the dogs

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Dogs are not really Portrayed favorably in the Bible And this is because Dogs are the only

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Domesticated animals That will eat human flesh In the

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Bible They were unclean In fact in 1st

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Kings Chapter 21 The judgment against the wicked queen Jezebel is that the dogs

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Would consume her What this means is that The wild dogs were ritualistically

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Unclean As in If they lick your sores

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You were made unclean Here we see That Lazarus Is at the very bottom

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There's It couldn't get any worse In his life He's not only impoverished

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But he's just made unclean In his attempt to get fed And there's no evidence

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That he was ever fed By this rich man Now at this point if you ask the audience

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Who is more blessed They would have had no problem Saying the rich man

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Obviously the rich man Got all the good stuff From God And the poor man

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Lazarus Man he must have done something Really bad to anger God And often times we think like that Don't we if something bad happens to us

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We assume God is Going against me This parable actually goes against that notion

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If something bad happens to you It may not be even God Who did that And for Christians It's even more important To know

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That God does not Punish you Because God has poured out

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All his wrath on his son Jesus Christ on the cross There is no more left over wrath

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For Christians Now God does discipline his children But that is not

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Punishment The discipline is so that we

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Become more like Jesus Christ Punishment is for The sin and guilt that we carry

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But we don't have that anymore If you believe in Jesus Christ Now the plot twist comes in verse 22

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So it was that The beggar died And was carried by the angels To Abraham's bosom

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The rich man also died and was buried Two drastically

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Different lives Yet they both die Two drastically different lives

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And two drastically different Afterlives Lazarus is taken by the angels to Abraham's bosom

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Now Abraham is actually the main Patriarch of the Old Testament He is the father of Israel Right He is the father of the

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Jews Abraham epitomizes faith

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He after all Was counted righteous By God For his faith

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It's not that Abraham lived a sinless life And God said yes I count you righteous No He trusted in God And he was counted righteous

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He was justified by God For his faith

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And he's the father of the faith And what this shows is that Lazarus is counted among The blessed

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Lazarus is actually truly blessed Because Where he ended up With whom he belongs

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Ironically Lazarus who suffered outside As a social reject Is received by none other than Abraham The hero of the faith

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That's the ironic plot twist here Abraham's bosom means

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Abraham's side And it really it's It's kind of like a way That we say

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Peter's pearly gates Right Traditionally Jews believed that there were

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Two parts of the underworld And the underworld's called Sheol The first Place is where the righteous dwell

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And that's where Abraham and all the other Old Testament saints ended up And the second place

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Is for the wicked This is the only place in the bible that mentions

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Abraham's bosom As a phrase So we cannot know much

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More about this place It is believed that this is Part of the underworld where the

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Old Testament saints ended up Before the crucifixion and resurrection Of Jesus Christ And after Jesus died for their sin

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Because he died for their sin Just as much as our sin Those who believed him

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Were taken to heaven with him Now some believe that Abraham's bosom

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Is just another word for heaven Either way It is clear that there are two

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Different places for the righteous And the unrighteous It is clear that there is

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An afterlife In which you

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Receive what you've Earned For those who are righteous

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Who are counted righteous because of Belief in God and his promises In a place of comfort

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To those who Did not believe In a place of torment

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And I don't use the word Hell here because Hell is actually a place After the judgment day

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The lake of fire These people are in the waiting room right now

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But it's still tormenting It's terrible But they will end up in the

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Place of ultimate judgment in hell After Jesus comes back

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And judges the unrighteous Now just as Lazarus' life

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Reversed completely So does the rich man's life And being in torment in Hades He lifted up his eyes and saw

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Abraham A far off And Lazarus in his bosom The rich man

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Ended up in the place of Torment The word for torment is used

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In other Jewish texts For the type of torture That's inflicted on slaves

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To obtain confessions That's not good

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That is torturous Ironically only when

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The rich man is tormented He looks up And sees

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Lazarus All his life The rich man wanted nothing

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To do with Lazarus Yet when the situation Is reversed

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Lazarus is suddenly Noticeable Oh it's that man

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Who was outside my gate This story is an important Reminder for our culture

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Because we're so focused On living the best life now We feel entitled

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To the best clothes We feel entitled To the best foods We feel entitled

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To the best jobs This is not to say That it's a wicked thing

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To desire good food Desire good clothes Or desire good jobs

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It's when These good things Become the ultimate things

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When these good things Become the very reason Why you live Then it becomes

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Idolatry You start to worship These things or this status

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Rather than God It is the thought

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That you deserve The best now It's driven by a sense

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Of entitlement And our culture Is all too familiar With that I'm entitled to this

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Someone else better Pay for it The fact of the matter

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Is most people Will not reach their best Not only that More tragically

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Even if they do reach their best What they imagined to be Their best life

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They will be utterly unsatisfied Look at the

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Hollywood actors And actresses Look at the politicians Look at the

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CEOs I don't know about you Satisfaction is not a word

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I would describe Their lives What's more important Is that the most devastating

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Effect comes after your life Your best life Now does not guarantee

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Your best afterlife Whether you become a millionaire Or you reach your dream life

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Nothing you can accomplish On earth Will place you in heaven

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But what about this musician His music was so good God doesn't need him

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There are better musicians up there What about this genius inventor

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You can say he went to hell God doesn't need that invention either He has better things up there

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The only guarantee Of having the best afterlife Is living your current life

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By trusting in Jesus Christ And this starts with trusting

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That only Jesus' death on the cross Rescued you from your sin

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And that he rose from the dead There was nothing in your life That was good enough That you could offer

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To bribe God to get into heaven Not only that After you place your faith in Jesus You start to live for him

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Your life is no longer yours to live But it belongs to Christ This does not mean

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We all get into vocational ministry Drop what you're doing It means living faithfully

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According to scripture Where God has placed you If you're a mother

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Disciple your kids in Christ daily If you are a father

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You better be praying for your family Providing for your family Loving your wife sacrificially

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And making sure you lead them In the way of Christ If you're children

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You obey your parents Because Christ placed your parents

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Above you And so on Faithful life

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Does not mean vocational ministry Faithful life means Being good stewards

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Of where God has placed you And often times people think

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Well if I'm not chasing my best life now I'm going to be missing out What the world has to offer

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However it's the opposite If you live for the best afterlife

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With Christ If that's your focus I want to see Christ I want to be with Christ Christ is my treasure

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Christ died for me I have no other desire but to love Christ You will live the best life now

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Ironically If you chase after the best life now You won't get it

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And you'll get the worst life In afterlife But if you chase After the best afterlife now

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You'll have the best life now In the end

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Your life in Christ Is the best possible life That God has to offer Christ is the best treasure

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That heaven has ever seen In fact Christians Are too easily satisfied

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With just the things of the world Well you know I'll just trust Jesus Just enough to get by I'll just serve others

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Just enough to be noticed I'll be generous

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Just enough to be comfortable And I guarantee you

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If you ask any of the older saints here Who have lived for Christ all their lives Or missionaries who visit

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Who may have given up their family Better jobs

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Influence Or more expensive lifestyle A place they want to call home

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If you ask them Do you regret what you gave up The faithful will say

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No because I've gained so much Ultimately I've gained Christ Ultimately I got to spend

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These decades with Christ Living in his will Living for his joy

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Looking forward to That Commendation Good work

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My good and faithful servant Job well done For you have been

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Faithful of very little Now how can we faithfully respond

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God's revelation Is sufficient for all To respond in repentance God's revelation is sufficient for all

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To respond in repentance After seeing Lazarus on the same side As Abraham The rich man makes his pleas

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The first plea is shown in 24 Which Abraham replies From 25 through 26

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Father Abraham Have mercy on me And send Lazarus that he may dip

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The tip of his finger in water And cool my tongue For I am tormented in this flame

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The first request by the rich man Is that he himself may feel Some temporary relief

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From the torment Of Hades What's really odd about this request

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Is that he asks Lazarus To come down to his level Have Lazarus provide

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That relief It really shows that the rich man

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Really was aware of Lazarus In the life prior It's not like Lazarus Was starving outside the gate

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Because the rich man was Unaware The rich man knew of Lazarus He knows the name

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Abraham didn't need To introduce him Right after all in the underworld There's no guarantee you're omniscient

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Actually you're not going to be omniscient when you die You're not God Lazarus Did not suffer outside the gate

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Because the rich man was unaware Rather Lazarus hungered and Suffered outside the gate

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Despite the rich man knowing About his sorry state Moreover The rich man

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Has a troubling mindset Just as he did not care For Lazarus in his lifetime

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He still has no regard for Lazarus To this rich man Lazarus is still the insignificant man

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Who was lying down at his gate I just send him over here He was fine

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Living by my gate all his life He can stop by In the place of torment

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No regard for the well being of Lazarus What we do need to consider

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Is that the request is very minimal Just dip the tip of your finger In water

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To cool my tongue A couple of significant points here

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About the afterlife and torment First The torment for the unrighteous

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Will be so unbearable That they would long For even the slightest temporary relief

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It's so Unendurable So unbearable That even the littlest relief

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Would be good enough Just give me that little bit Just give me that little drop of water

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And this is Troubling Because think about the next time When people or shows joke about hell

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It's a seriously Seriously tormenting place It's not a place

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You want anyone to go to Second The rich man

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Is not repentant The words that come out of his mouth Is not a confession of his sins

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He's not confessing His calloused heart That disregarded the languishing Lazarus Outside the gate

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While he feasted sumptuously No rather The request is

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Could you have Lazarus serve me again Could you send him down here This is the picture of hell

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In hell there is no one Who is trying to repent There's no remorse for their sin

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In one sense yes God sent them there And in another sense They're keeping themselves there

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They're not repenting They can't They weren't wrong in their eyes

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Three Ironically the rich man Asked for a little bit of relief

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From Lazarus Which he himself Did not offer Lazarus When they both were alive

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The rich man could have easily Given up scraps from under his table There's no evidence that he did that Now all of a sudden

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The rich man Now the roles are reversed Wants Lazarus to do something

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Just a little favor Come on The rich man desires

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What he did not offer All throughout this interaction Lazarus does not speak

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You'll not hear Lazarus speak It's not because he's mute Instead Abraham speaks on his behalf

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And this is because Lazarus has no need To defend or justify himself He is already comforted

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And has entered into his master's joy And he does not Feel any need to defend himself

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For all of us who are in heaven Whoever believe in Jesus Christ You have one defender

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And one justifier And that is Jesus Christ You do not have to defend yourself

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You do not have to justify yourself Now or in heaven If someone falsely accuses you

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You have one defender And he will defend you You don't have to justify yourself

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Now Abraham defends him Son Remember that in your lifetime

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You received your good things And likewise Lazarus' evil things But now he's comforted

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And you are tormented The first reason why Lazarus Will not go down to comfort the rich man

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Is because he already received The good things And he chose to indulge himself

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Rather than to show compassion On Lazarus What the rich man wants now

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He never provided Lazarus in the first place In one sense

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There is no mercy For those who did not show mercy The second reason is this

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And besides all this Between us and you There is a great gulf fixed So that those who want to pass from here

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To you cannot Nor can those from there Pass to us There's a great chasm

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There's a great distance Between Lazarus and the rich man Between the righteous And the unrighteous

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And this is even beyond Abraham's pay grade Right The passive verb fixed

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Means that God did it It's been fixed By whom? Well God In the afterlife

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There is no chance to reverse the course There is no salvation after death

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And that's what we're really saying about There is no salvation after death You cannot repent after death

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There's no record of that possibility And this is what makes our plea

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To repent and believe in Jesus Christ So urgent You may not have a tomorrow

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You might be able to talk to the Arnettes They shared a couple Sundays ago During prayer

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About how there have been people Who responded to Jesus And they were young people

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Kids Teenagers And after they believed

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They died shortly after We just don't know

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But what we do know is this There is an expiration date

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In which you can repent This idea that I'm going to live my best life now

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And repent when I'm good and old And retired There's no guarantee of that And in fact

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It's permanent After death Wherever you're headed That's where you'll be Now, knowing the rich man cannot find

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Even temporary relief for himself He pleads on behalf of his five brothers I beg you therefore father

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That you would send him to my father's house For I have five brothers That he may testify to them

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Lest they also come to this place of torment The rich man Is not completely self -absorbed

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Here he does care about his family He knows just like him

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His family They're self -absorbed They have hardened hearts They're self -indulgent

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At this rate Where they're headed They're going to be joining him

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Right where he is Unless there's an intervention Again The rich man has no problem

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Ordering Lazarus where to go He is still unable to show compassion

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To Lazarus Lazarus who finally found comfort And blessing Which he never experienced in his life

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The rich man says Oh well you know he can go Let him leave that Make him leave that Do my bidding

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And Abraham Concisely cancels his request They have

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Moses and the prophets Let them hear them Moses and the prophets Are the whole of the

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Old Testament And this makes sense With the audience of the Pharisees Who believed in the whole of the

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Old Testament Right not just the first five books Torah What Jesus is saying

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And what Abraham is saying really here Is that this is because All throughout the Old Testament God commands

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Israel to show mercy And compassion To the weak As God does

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It's everywhere They don't need extra help

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Just have them to listen to God Have them open up that scripture And follow

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Desperately the rich man Counters no father Abraham But if one goes to them from the dead They will repent

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This sounds logical Until we pack its premises The rich man

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Is telling Abraham That God's word is not enough To lead his brothers to repentance

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According to the rich man God's revelation Is insufficient to save Unless it is paired

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With a spectacular miracle That is tailored For his brothers My brothers deserve

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A little more than what others get What a scary thought

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Again Abraham rejects the claim If they do not hear

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Moses and the prophets Neither will they be persuaded Though one rise from the dead

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If they reject Moses and the prophets Neither will they be persuaded

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Though one rise from the dead Abraham firmly Holds to the sufficiency

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Of scripture If they reject God's revelation They will not repent

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Even if someone rises from the dead And this is proven true

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In scripture Over and over again God intervenes with miracles That could not have happened

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Unless God did it Yet Israel's heart After a certain time Sometimes short, sometimes decades

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Turn away from God And start worshipping other gods In scripture over and over again

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We see that it's not the miracles That lead people to God Rather changed hearts

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Lead people to God They need to first Believe in God's word

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In order to repent And ultimately

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Abraham's response alludes to Christ's forthcoming Death on the cross

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And resurrection After all Jesus will rise From the dead And he will show up To many in Jerusalem And elsewhere

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Yet The religious establishment The Pharisees and the

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Sadducees Will still reject him And persecute The church

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They will not be persuaded Though Jesus rose from the dead Because in the end

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They have hardened their hearts Against God Yet Consider the

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Pharisees They saw many miracles Even when Jesus was alive Jesus cleansed lepers

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He healed the lame Jesus gave sight to the blind Jesus raised people from the dead

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Yet they always found Various ways to justify Their rejection of Jesus Christ Well he has demons in him

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He's doing that by the power of Satan They didn't reject

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Jesus Because they did not see miracles and signs They rejected Jesus Despite seeing the signs

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Because of their hardened hearts Calloused hearts They have already

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Closed their minds about Jesus And no number of miracles Would have penetrated their thick skulls

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And this is important Because faith Comes from hearing of God's word

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Not seeing miracles I'm not saying miracles don't happen

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I'm sure all of us We've seen some miracles In our lives The fact that God provides

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The funding for the roof That's a miracle I'm saying our faith does not depend

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On the supernatural spectacles But scripture Supernaturally working

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In our hearts Our faith is dependent On what

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God has said And has done Rather than what our eyes Personally witness

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In the end we believe in Jesus That scripture tells us Not because we got to meet him face to face

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But because God's word Said so There is nothing else you need

01:00:07

To do but trust him We trust The crucified king

01:00:13

Who suffered for our sin And rose from the dead And we get to hear it

01:00:20

You don't have to get your life together Before approaching this king

01:00:26

You don't have to be perfect To be saved You're saved by God's grace alone

01:00:35

Salvation is a free gift In Christ and you get to hear it From his word And you're responding to his word

01:00:44

What this means Is scripture is sufficient To lead us to genuine faith

01:00:51

And this is why the church's Focus must be on the word of God Not spectacles

01:00:57

It's not about entertainment It is not about Whatever miracle

01:01:05

Services they have It's about God's word We don't gather to Attempt miracles

01:01:15

We gather to hear God's word And thereby we experience His loving presence

01:01:20

It is not the miracles or spectacles That lead people to salvation

01:01:27

But God's very word Preached and proclaimed Which the

01:01:32

Holy Spirit Uses in our hearts To regenerate us You will meet people in the world

01:01:40

Who reject Christ And they will demand signs If you talk to atheists, non -believers

01:01:47

Any other pagan religions They'll say, well if Jesus is real Then show me Do something

01:01:53

And they will try to poke holes In scripture

01:02:02

Yet we must hold fast To God's wisdom in scripture This is why

01:02:09

Paul says In 1 Corinthians For since in the wisdom of God The world did not know

01:02:15

God through wisdom It pleased God Through the folly of what we preach To save those who believe

01:02:22

The cross Was the folly To the Jews and the Greek What do you mean the world

01:02:30

Is saved by a crucified man On the cross Do you know how shameful that is What do you mean

01:02:37

Our king is crucified You know the Old Testament Says he has to be coming Conquering For Jews demand signs

01:02:46

And Greeks seek wisdom But we preach Christ crucified A stumbling block to Jews And a folly to Gentiles But to those who are called

01:02:56

Both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God And the wisdom of God People will seek signs

01:03:06

But in the end The true power of God to save Comes from the hearing And the preaching of the word

01:03:14

That's what truly saves It's when God's word

01:03:19

Penetrates your heart And you see That you Are so sinful

01:03:26

That nothing less than The death of the son of God Could save you from your sin

01:03:32

And that he graciously Stayed on the cross And that he's risen

01:03:39

That's when you can believe That's how you respond

01:03:45

And what Jesus is saying It's not the ones Who got to see

01:03:52

The miracles who are blessed It's the ones who believed What God has said

01:03:58

Who are blessed Because that God's word is what leads us

01:04:04

To repentance It is God's word that leads us To salvation

01:04:10

Let us pray Father we are grateful

01:04:18

That your word is infallible And inerrant And your word Joyfully and powerfully

01:04:26

Proclaims the gospel That Jesus died for our sin And rose from the dead And thank you that that is enough

01:04:34

We don't need to be there Two thousand years ago We don't need to time travel We believe because you've said so And help us

01:04:44

To repent Help us to respond in faith If we haven't done so already

01:04:51

Knowing that your word Is sufficient to save Help us to Not lose confidence in your word

01:05:01

Help us To be not ashamed Of the gospel Help us to trust