Rev. David Holwick L Parables of Jesus
First Baptist Church Easter
Ledgewood, New Jersey
March 27, 2016
Luke 16:19-31
WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO CONVINCE YOU?
I. Are you prepared to die?
A. The wrong way to get ready.
An interesting newspaper clipping from 1999 told of a British
man who was quite a character.
Two or three days AFTER his funeral his friends started
getting signed postcards from him.
The cards said "wish you were here" and were addressed from
"Celestial City."
The cards were authentic - before he died he had written them
and asked a friend to mail them on the day of his funeral.
This same man also had a VERY UNUSUAL request in his will -
HE ASKED TO BE BURIED WITH A FIRE EXTINGUISHER!!
I doubt this jokester really believed in hell, but he wanted
his friends to think he was prepared for every possibility.
#4750
B. Many people are less cynical but just as skeptical.
A few years back I read a New Yorker magazine article.
It described a get-together in a Manhattan apartment following
the funeral of a young adult in the city.
All of the people assured each other that their friend was now
in heaven.
Good things were happening to him.
Angels and clouds and joy entered the descriptions.
But it struck the observer that no one really seemed to believe
any of it.
These were the images they had been brought up with, that their
parents and grandparents had passed on to them.
Yet to the young people in that apartment these images all
seemed hollow and untrue.
They spoke them because they didn't have a better version of
heaven to share.
In reality, these young people focused exclusively on life the
rest of the time.
Death was a rude and awkward intrusion, ignored whenever
possible.
[1]
C. Death serves a purpose.
1) It is the great equalizer of all who live.
2) Every one of us is destined to experience it.
3) Will you be prepared when it comes?
II. An ancient story - with a twist.
A. The Rich Man and Lazarus has some unique features.
1) It is the only parable told by Jesus that has a named
character - Lazarus.
a) This is not the same Lazarus as the friend of Jesus
who died and was raised to life again.
b) This one died and stayed dead.
c) The rich guy is not named, until later in the Latin
translation of the New Testament, which calls him
Dives.
1> This is Latin for "rich guy."
2) It is the only parable that gives so much detail on what
happens after we die.
a) You do have to be careful when you interpret it.
b) Like many of Jesus' parables, it is probably based on
fiction. It is a story.
c) This means you cannot press all the details to come
out with an exact description of heaven.
B. The theme was common in the ancient world.
1) They liked to hear about poor people coming out on top,
and the elite getting trashed.
2) It is just like today, when we relish stories about
millionaires who go to jail or go bankrupt.
3) The theme is known as The Great Reversal.
a) Jesus often used this theme in his teaching.
b) Perhaps you have heard the saying, "The first will be
last and the last will be first." It's from Jesus.
4) The twist in the story comes at the end.
a) But first, let's take a closer look at the parable.
III. Three snapshots fill out the story.
A. There is a rich guy and a poor guy.
1) The portrayal of the two men emphasizes extremes.
a) The poor man has dogs licking his open sores.
b) The rich guy has food spilling onto the floor.
2) The story doesn't explicitly say that the rich guy was bad
and the poor guy was good.
a) However, Luke usually shows the poor as those who trust
in God, while rich people trust in themselves.
b) Their social standing reveals their spiritual status.
1> Note that even in Hades, the rich guy expects to
be waited on by Lazarus! 16:24
B. Both die, and their circumstances switch.
1) We make distinctions in death - on this side of it, anyway.
a) Dying in style.
Los Angeles has a new 12-story, earthquake-proof,
$190 million Roman Catholic cathedral.
It is celebrated not for its $12-a-day parking garage
or on-location ATM, but for the private burial crypts
underneath the church.
Prices range from $50,000 to $3 million.
A Notre Dame theology professor said it was kind of
like selling sky boxes.
Another Catholic university professor defended the
steep prices and said, "I don't think that the poor
are terribly worried about where they are going
to be buried."
#18083
The rich guy in Jesus' story would have liked this
professor.
b) It is not how you are buried, but how you are judged
by God.
1> He will make his own assessment, based on our
inner character and faith.
2> He doesn't give a hoot about your tomb.
2) The poor guy ends up by Abraham's side (=paradise) and
the rich guy ends up in hell.
a) The literal term is "hades."
1> Christians think in terms of heaven and hell.
2> The Hebrews combined it into one place with two
sections, which they called Sheol.
A> The rabbis of Jesus' day described the good
side as Abraham's Bosom (=side) and a
place of torment.
b) The ancient world dreaded death.
1> People believed in life after death, but it was not
something to look forward to.
2> Achilles said, "I would rather be the slave of a
landless man than dead."
3> Even the Old Testament says it is better to be a
live dog than a dead lion!
3) Comfort vs. torment is obvious.
a) Eternal punishment bothers most modern people.
1> Sects like Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses eliminate
it from their theology.
2> But any honest Bible student has to admit that
Jesus of Nazareth consistently taught this truth.
b) People must be free to reject God.
1> Anyone will convert from fear. God wants love.
A> Love requires free choice.
2> Hell is being separated from God.
A> It is a loneliness we choose now. 2 Thess 1:9
B> Heaven would be misery for those who reject God.
c) Is this a defeat for God? C.S. Lewis once said -
"What you call defeat, I call miracle: for to ...
be capable of being resisted by his own handiwork,
is the most astounding and unimaginable of all the
feats we attribute to God."
#307
d) There are eternal consequences for our moral choices
here on earth.
C. The rich guy wants a change.
1) He may be rich but he is not stupid.
a) He wants relief from his suffering.
b) None is available, because of the chasm between them.
2) He wants his brothers to be warned.
a) Perhaps this suggests a note of self-justification -
with a little more light, I might have changed.
b) It is also a twist - it is not just about sticking it
to the rich like the other ancient versions of the
story.
c) It is a warning for us who are still alive.
d) How do we get the message out that you don't want to
end up down here?
IV. How the message will come.
A. You won't get a ghost from beyond the grave.
1) Member's conversation with Mt. Arlington Mayor Art Ondish.
a) He was near death, and she asked him to visit her
after he was gone.
b) The mayor, a strong Christian, said you aren't allowed
back. He was right.
2) People crave supernatural experiences to prove their faith,
but they are never supernatural enough to convert skeptics.
3) Jesus says even his own resurrection won't convince those
who have hardened hearts.
B. The Bible is all you need.
1) "Moses and the prophets" refers to the two main portions
of the Old Testament.
a) It was also called the Law and the Prophets.
b) The prophetic writings included the historical books
as well.
2) The Bible gives a clear answer to our spiritual condition.
a) We are sinners.
b) Because of our sin, we suffer and fall short in life.
c) Jesus came to redeem us.
d) We must choose him in faith.
C. Does it mean anything to YOU?
1) (Noticing fidgeting as the Scripture was read this morning.)
2) Many give the Bible lip-service but never crack it open.
a) Movie "American Sniper" - the hero Chris Kyle goes to
church as a kid, and keeps a Bible in the pocket
next to his heart during combat.
b) Another soldier challenges him - do you ever actually
read it? His fallen face shows that he doesn't.
c) Kyle's autobiography gives a more nuanced answer.
"I'm not the kind of person who makes a big show out
of religion.
I believe, but I don't necessarily get down on my knees
or sing real loud in church.
But I find some comfort in faith, and I found it in those
days after my friends had been shot up.
Ever since I had gone through SEAL training, I'd carried
a Bible with me.
I hadn't read it all that much, but it had always been
with me.
Now I opened it and read some of the passages.
I skipped around, read a bit, skipped around some more.
With all hell breaking loose around me, it felt better to
know I was part of something bigger."
[2]
d) Many Christians are like this.
1> You believe, but not very much.
2> The Bible is not a joke. Heed God's warnings!
V. Will it be enough to convince you?
A. Modern young people want heaven but aren't so keen on God.
1) A study released this week found that fewer Americans say
they believe in God or pray regularly.
It's a generational thing, with millennials (those in their
20s) the least likely to say they're religious or
take the Bible literally,
2) This isn't big news, but one trend sticks out - more people
believe in an afterlife now.
Forty years ago 73% believed in heaven, and now 80% do.
One of the study's authors thought it might be part of a
growing entitlement mentality - thinking you can get
"something for nothing."
#65169
B. Today is the day of salvation. 2 Cor 6:2
25 years ago the first Gulf War ended.
At the Billy Graham crusade in Seattle, a woman named Shirley
Lansing gave a testimony that was deeply moving.
She told the crowd, "I come with a story about my son, John
Kendall Morgan.
He was a Warrant Officer in the United States Army, serving in
Operation Desert Storm."
Shirley told the crowd that her son, Jack, had committed his
life to Jesus at an early age.
"At that time," she said, "it didn't seem terribly important,
but it was."
"A few weeks ago, two officers came to our door and told us they
regretted to inform us that our son had been killed in action.
His helicopter had been shot down by hostile Iraqi fire."
"When Jack got on the airplane to leave for Saudi Arabia," his
mother recalled, "he gave Lisa, his fiancée, a bride's book.
They were planning their wedding.
Perhaps the most moving moment of Shirley's testimony came when
she said,
"I speak to you only from my heart, and out of my pain, because
only God can give me the strength to stand here before you
and say these words.
But they're so important.
Each of you has the decision to make that my son made.
And this is the time when you have a choice, because we never
know how long we'll have to make that decision."
Three weeks before John Morgan was killed in action, half a
world from home, he wrote two letters to his family, "just
in case."
Shirley and her family gathered together after they received
word that their son had been killed and read the letters.
John ended his final letter with these words:
"In case you have to open this, please don't worry.
I am all right...
Now I know something you don't know -- what heaven's like!"
#2616
=========================================================================
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] I can no longer locate the exact reference but I remember the article
quite well.
# 307 “Motives of Universalism,” Stephen Travis, from his book "I Believe
in the Second Coming of Jesus" (1988), page 199.
# 2616 “I Know What Heaven's Like,” Billy Graham, from his book "Hope For
the Troubled Heart" (Grason: 1991), page 225. Secondary source
Dynamic Preaching (www.sermons.com) Spring 1993.
# 4750 “Don't Prepare For Eternity the Wrong Way,” email submitted by
Peter Hewer on August 26, 1999.
#18083 “God's Sky Boxes,” Associated Press, September 5, 2002.
#65169 “Fewer Americans Believe In God — Yet They Still Believe In
Afterlife,” Maggie Fox, March 21, 2016; <link>.
#65171 “A Rabbit Foot Or the Word of God?” David Holwick, adapted from
"Here's the faith in the 'American Sniper' you won't see in
the film," by Sarah Pulliam Bailey, January 14, 2015; <link>.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
=========================================================================
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
Created with the Freeware Edition of HelpNDoc: Free help authoring environment