SPEAKER_00: The scripture reading this morning is taken from Luke's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: If I can get the lights up a little bit, please.
SPEAKER_00: I know the sermon, but not that well.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture reading this morning is taken from Luke's Gospel, chapter 16.
SPEAKER_00: We will be reading verses 19 through 31.
SPEAKER_00: If you are here this morning and you don't have a Bible with you, there should be one located there in that pocket in front of you that you can use.
SPEAKER_00: And each week we remind people that if you're here and you don't own a Bible, that you don't have a copy of God's Word at your house or your apartment that you have ready access to, we want you to take that pew Bible that you're holding right now and take it home with you as our gift.
SPEAKER_00: We want you to have it, write your name in it, keep it as your own to read and to study.
SPEAKER_00: And then if you would come back each week and we'll study God's word together, a passage at a time.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 16, that's in the Pew Bible on page 876.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 16, I will begin reading in verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and who feasted sumptuously every day.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
SPEAKER_00: The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.
SPEAKER_00: The rich man also died and was buried.
SPEAKER_00: And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his side.
SPEAKER_00: 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 these flames.
SPEAKER_00: But Abraham said, Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner had uh like manner bad things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.
SPEAKER_00: And besides 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.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, 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.
SPEAKER_00: But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, No, Father Abraham, but if somebody goes to them from the dead, they will repent.
SPEAKER_00: He said to them, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Thus ends the reading of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Shortly after I was uh married, we were planning on going on a trip to Europe, but we had complications in the pregnancy, and so we had to cancel the entire trip.
SPEAKER_00: And and uh as a consolation, we decided to go to a very famous hotel there in San Diego where we were living, the Hotel Dell.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, some of you may be familiar with it.
SPEAKER_00: It is uh an amazing place, um, far beyond uh what I would ever afford on another circumstance.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I've never paid as much for a hotel uh since then.
SPEAKER_00: But it was amazing.
SPEAKER_00: You go around there and uh it is just living in the lap of luxury.
SPEAKER_00: Uh as we were there, it was just amazing and and uh felt a little bit out of place sitting at the pool and listening to people talk about their oceanfront homes and their portfolios, and they made more money in a year than I'll make in a lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, I knew it was going to end because I knew how many days I had.
SPEAKER_00: Um I knew that no matter how much I was enjoying it, that it wasn't going to last forever.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a reminder in that that reminds me of this passage that no matter how we live in this life, whether we live in the lap of luxury or whether we live in poverty, there is coming a day for each one of us that's unavoidable that we will come to the end of this life unless we're here when the Lord returns.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're looking at this story here of the rich man in Lazarus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, before we begin, I want to address a question that people have.
SPEAKER_00: And uh is this a parable or is this recounting actual events?
SPEAKER_00: And I have to be quite honest with you, I've gone back and forth over the years as I've wrestled with that, even this week, as I was reading the different commentators and scholars on this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Um, for those, some would look at this passage and say that there's nothing in this passage that says it's a parable.
SPEAKER_00: Most of Jesus' parables begin by Jesus addressing the fact that it's a parable.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but that isn't universally the case, but generally speaking, Jesus will say, uh, the Bible will say that Jesus spoke to them in parables.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing in this section that says that.
SPEAKER_00: Also, some point to the fact that uh in no other parable, if this is one, does Jesus name one of the people?
SPEAKER_00: He names Lazarus here, uh, one of the individuals in this story.
SPEAKER_00: Also, this story seems to describe descriptive, specific events as opposed to general, repeatable events, and so that lends to the idea that this is not a parable, but rather it is a uh it is an actual event.
SPEAKER_00: Now, other scholars would argue that this is a parable, and uh they would give some good reasons for that.
SPEAKER_00: They would say, uh, first of all, it follows in a string of other parables in chapters 15 and 16, and so it would fall in line with what Jesus has been teaching here in this context.
SPEAKER_00: Uh some scholars would say, uh, in addition to that, in the beginning of this chapter, he tells what almost all scholars would say as a parable.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, in the beginning of this, the parable of the dishonest manager, and he begins using the exact same words as he does here.
SPEAKER_00: There was a rich man.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in another story, uh he uses the, it really says there was a man, a rich one, uh, and he uses that in the parable, uh, there was a man, uh, in the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke chapter 10, verse 30.
SPEAKER_00: So they say grammatically uh it lends itself as other parables, uh, the language that Jesus uses.
SPEAKER_00: Uh also uh scholars would say that uh that a parable teaches uh at least one central truth.
SPEAKER_00: It may teach more than that.
SPEAKER_00: We saw that in the parable of the of the prodigal sons.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and uh we examined that and we saw that there were multiple points of application uh in that parable, so it can do more than one application, but at least one.
SPEAKER_00: And they would say that uh the reason why they would say this is a parable is because of some of the details here uh don't uh uh line up with what we know about uh the afterlife.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and they would argue this.
SPEAKER_00: They would say, for instance, um, we know that prior to uh the resurrection, uh people now in uh in Hades don't have physical bodies.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Revelation chapter 20, verses 11 through 15, at the great white throne judgment, those who uh have not previously been raised, believers, that the unbelievers are raised at that time, they have a at that time they have a physical body, and then it says that death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_00: And so they would say that prior to that, from now until the resurrection, we live in this intermediate state where the body goes into the grave and the person's soul or spirit goes uh to his uh to either heaven or to Hades waiting for the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh they would say that some of the language in here uh lends itself to uh having a body, which at this point uh none of those people would.
SPEAKER_00: Uh one's one commentator also argues even uh some of the language of communication, if there was a great chasm that was fixed, uh it would be difficult to communicate back and forth, uh, some other things like that.
SPEAKER_00: Um we won't go into this, but uh some have answered these questions by presenting what is called a partition theory of Hades prior to Christ's resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Um that isn't my personal position, but uh there's some good uh scholars who hold to that position.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but nonetheless, however we uh decide, however we land on that issue of is this a parable or an actual story, uh that does not take away in any way from what Jesus is saying here, the lessons that he is teaching, and the message that he has for each one of us.
SPEAKER_00: As we walk through this passage, we will see four unavoidable realities.
SPEAKER_00: Four unavoidable realities.
SPEAKER_00: There's three movements in this passage, but there's really four spiritual truths, unavoidable realities that we find here.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, we find that we only live once.
SPEAKER_00: There is no cycle of life that we only live once, and that after death then comes the judgment.
SPEAKER_00: That your decision to accept or reject Christ now will have eternal consequences.
SPEAKER_00: And so your decision now on what you do with the person of Jesus Christ will determine your eternal destiny.
SPEAKER_00: That we learn here, after death comes the judgment, there is no second chance.
SPEAKER_00: There is no possibility.
SPEAKER_00: Once this life ends, uh that is the end of the possibilities, and uh our uh the decision has been made by us and it is confirmed in eternity.
SPEAKER_00: There is no second chance.
SPEAKER_00: And then we will also see that if you don't accept and believe God's word, uh miracles will not change your mind.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't accept what God says in his word in the pages of the Bible, uh nothing else is greater that we have in this created order to convince us of the truth of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's move through this story, and there's three movements here that uh that we see, and it's really a contrast.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh look on in verse 19 as we walk through and we look at the three movements in this story.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the first movement we see it's a story of two people.
SPEAKER_00: We see in verse 19, there was a rich man.
SPEAKER_00: And it begins with the lifestyles of the rich and famous.
SPEAKER_00: Uh as this opens up, it begins with uh this sumptuous living.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the the man here is not named.
SPEAKER_00: Uh traditionally, he's often given the name of dives.
SPEAKER_00: Um, dives is really just the Latin word for rich.
SPEAKER_00: And so that isn't his name.
SPEAKER_00: Um I prefer to call him Donald.
SPEAKER_00: No particular reason.
SPEAKER_00: Um but he's not named in the passage, but he's living sumptuously, he's living extravagantly.
SPEAKER_00: There's an opulence to the lifestyle that he's living.
SPEAKER_00: And look at what it says.
SPEAKER_00: This guy was living like a king.
SPEAKER_00: It says he was clothed in purple.
SPEAKER_00: Uh his uh purple, one commentator notes that his outer garments were of imported Phoenician wool, dyed in the purple of murex, uh, a rare and expensive sea mussel.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh purple was the color of royalty.
SPEAKER_00: He was living like a king.
SPEAKER_00: It goes on to say that he was wearing purple in fine linen, and I found this humorous.
SPEAKER_00: Every commentator said that uh the fine linen referred to uh linen imported from Egypt, and and this would have been his underwear.
SPEAKER_00: So he was wearing fine imported Egyptian underwear.
SPEAKER_00: Um when I lived in San Diego, um when people would come and visit, we I they inevitably they'd want to go and visit Hollywood.
SPEAKER_00: So we would drive up to Hollywood, and if you've ever been uh on Hollywood and Vine, um it's really not that fun.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a couple couple shops and uh some famous places, the Walk of Stars, uh the Chinese theater with the with the handprints, but you you have a good hour and you're done.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh I found out that Beverly Hills was just about four or five miles away, and so we'd hop back in the car and we'd drive to Beverly Hills, we'd park uh on Rodeo Drive, which is this amazing uh set of shops.
SPEAKER_00: All of the all of the fashion houses of the world are on Rodeo Drive, and uh we didn't go to shop.
SPEAKER_00: Um we went to look and it was amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we we would go there and it was just absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_00: We um we we went into Gucci and we would play a game.
SPEAKER_00: We'd say, okay, find the most expensive pairs of shoes.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we found this$8,000,$7,000,$8,000 pair of leather slip-on loafers.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking at them, I'm like,$8,000.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and then I realized that the salesman came with it and he massaged your feet when you took them off.
SPEAKER_00: We we went into another store, and the guy must have thought I had money because he tried selling me a uh an Andy Warhol original, one of those four paintings that was of tigers.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, it's$500,000, but it's sure to appreciate in value.
SPEAKER_00: As if I was worried about that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, he could have moved the decimal points over two and I wouldn't have had enough.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but we we went into another show.
SPEAKER_00: We we would go around it, but I remember going into Versace.
SPEAKER_00: It was it's it's off of Rodeo Drive, and I walk into Versace, and and as we're we're looking around, I see there right on the counter displayed hanging there, are a pair of men's underwear for$90.
SPEAKER_00: I these weren't like they were they they were they were white, like three for ten dollars at Walmart, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Tidy Whiteys, you know, they're 90 bucks.
SPEAKER_00: I was afraid to even get close to them.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know what in the world.
SPEAKER_00: This man was wearing$90 Versace underwear.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, talk about the opulence of his life.
SPEAKER_00: He feasted every day.
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't just on the weekend, he he ate uh uh extravagantly.
SPEAKER_00: And then there was Lazarus, and at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus.
SPEAKER_00: He was dying, he was disabled.
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't even walk to the gate.
SPEAKER_00: He was a beggar, but he couldn't even get there.
SPEAKER_00: He had to have people take him and place him there.
SPEAKER_00: He was disabled in some significant way that he had to be carried.
SPEAKER_00: He was placed at this gate.
SPEAKER_00: This this gate is a word that isn't just an ordinary gate, it's a word that describes a gate to the entrance of a city or a palace.
SPEAKER_00: And here he was placed there.
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't even crawl, he was laid there.
SPEAKER_00: He was poor, he had no money, he had no means of making money, all he could do was beg.
SPEAKER_00: It says he was covered with ulcerous sores, that he had open wounds that would not heal, that he was there and in anguish and in agony, but not only that, the disformed body that he had as people looked at him and they would see him and probably turn away with disgust.
SPEAKER_00: It says here that he was hungry.
SPEAKER_00: He longed to be filled with the food that fell from the rich man's table.
SPEAKER_00: This man was so uh well fed and feasting in such a way that even the scraps that fell from the table, he longed to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man's table.
SPEAKER_00: And then it says, moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
SPEAKER_00: Now we don't know what kind of dogs there were.
SPEAKER_00: Most dogs were not domestic house pets, and so this very well could have been wild dogs that would have just been uh scavenger dogs, and they they would have come up to him and seeing the open sores and using him as a meal.
SPEAKER_00: Or it could be that these were the uh that that the rich man had dogs as a part of his uh of his household, and they they ate better than he did.
SPEAKER_00: They were the ones that ate the scraps off the off the table, and still they came and licked his wounds.
SPEAKER_00: The picture here is to is created to generate a sense of disgust of how pathetic the situation is.
SPEAKER_00: Lazarus had nothing.
SPEAKER_00: His name, Lazarus, comes from the the Hebrew Eliezer, which meant God has helped.
SPEAKER_00: Some may have heard his name and thought it was just a cruel irony, but I think in reality it reflected the true reality of his heart because we find, even though he didn't have anything by way of material possession, we find that he knew God.
SPEAKER_00: And more than that, that God knew him and cared for him.
SPEAKER_00: And we see that in the next verses.
SPEAKER_00: God has helped.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we see two men, and and secondly, here we see two uh a death with two destinies.
SPEAKER_00: A death with two destinies.
SPEAKER_00: It says the poor man died.
SPEAKER_00: A poor man died.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing here is said of his burial, and that's probably because he didn't have one.
SPEAKER_00: He probably died of starvation and disease, and commentators said most likely his body was discarded, probably carried to the trash heap in the valley of Hinnem, where uh they would have fires burning like an incinerator, and they just would have discarded his body like an unused piece of trash, an unwanted piece of trash.
SPEAKER_00: But even though his earthly remains may not have been cared for, look at what it says in the text in verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: The poor man dies and he was carried by the angels to Abraham's side, to Abraham's bosom.
SPEAKER_00: And what a beautiful picture of the care that God has for one of his children.
SPEAKER_00: That he's carried by the angels to paradise.
SPEAKER_00: That he's a true child of Abraham, not only by birth, but by faith.
SPEAKER_00: That he goes to the place where the great patriarch is, and he goes there to fellowship with him, to dine with him, to enjoy his company.
SPEAKER_00: And then it says the rich man died also.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: And he was buried.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus mentions the fact that this man was buried.
SPEAKER_00: He most likely received a royal send-off.
SPEAKER_00: He likely made preparations for a splendid burial that held nothing back, and anybody who was anybody in that village would have come to his funeral if nothing else, maybe not to pay their last respects, but just to enjoy the extravagance and the luxury of his funeral.
SPEAKER_00: But then it says in verse 23, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.
SPEAKER_00: He passes through the veil of death and he finds himself in Hades.
SPEAKER_00: It's a word uh for the place where people go when they die.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes it was used uh in uh in in the Greek, in a general sense of the nether world.
SPEAKER_00: Uh in the Old Testament, the Hebrew for that same word would have been uh as well, just the place of the dead.
SPEAKER_00: But the word Hades in the New Testament is never used in regards to those who are believers, of those who are saved.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why people, when they hear this term, often only associate it with hell.
SPEAKER_00: And in our thinking in the New Testament, that would be what would be the case.
SPEAKER_00: It was a place of punishment, of torment.
SPEAKER_00: And it says that he is in torment.
SPEAKER_00: Now, scholars debate here, and I think they miss the point of it.
SPEAKER_00: They debate, well, is this literally the fires of Hades?
SPEAKER_00: Is this a literal fire?
SPEAKER_00: Is it something else?
SPEAKER_00: And they they say that to say, well, maybe it's not as bad as what the Bible paints it to be.
SPEAKER_00: That maybe this is just metaphorical, and because it's a metaphor, maybe it's something less than that.
SPEAKER_00: But to me, that misses the entire logic.
SPEAKER_00: If this is a metaphor, it is not a metaphor for something less than this.
SPEAKER_00: It would be a metaphor for something worse than this, and that this is the closest description that we have to what is happening.
SPEAKER_00: But as I read this, I have no reason to take it as anything other than the reality of what a person apart from a relationship with Christ experiences.
SPEAKER_00: Now, notice here, there's a few things that we we see here that he he notices Abraham and Lazarus.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it tells us that he calls out, verse 24, Father Abraham, have mercy on me.
SPEAKER_00: And send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water to cool my tongue, for I'm in anguish in these flames.
SPEAKER_00: He knows who Abraham is, and he knows who Lazarus is.
SPEAKER_00: Every day Lazarus was placed at his gate.
SPEAKER_00: And most likely every day he walked out his gate and walked throughout the city and ignored and disregarded Lazarus laying there, lying there at his gate.
SPEAKER_00: He had it within his power to aid and assist and to help.
SPEAKER_00: But because his heart was so corrupt and so blackened by sin, so dark and apart from all the things of God, he had no compassion.
SPEAKER_00: It revealed the reality of his heart that he had no relationship with the living God.
SPEAKER_00: And he ignored Lazarus his whole life, but he knew who he was.
SPEAKER_00: He knew his name.
SPEAKER_00: And yet his whole life he walked by.
SPEAKER_00: Well, finally, we see a plea with two requests here.
SPEAKER_00: There's a plea with two requests.
SPEAKER_00: We see the first request.
SPEAKER_00: He asked Abraham, have mercy on me.
SPEAKER_00: An interesting request for someone who had no mercy his whole life.
SPEAKER_00: Have mercy on me.
SPEAKER_00: Send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue.
SPEAKER_00: What an awful picture that's painted here.
SPEAKER_00: The reality of eternal punishment.
SPEAKER_00: Even in the midst of this situation, he's still asking for Lazarus to be his servant.
SPEAKER_00: But we see here the punishment and the reality of his eternal destiny.
SPEAKER_00: And it's an awful picture.
SPEAKER_00: It ought to weigh on our hearts as we think about the fact that those who do not have a relationship with Christ will face an eternal separation from God for all of eternity in conscious torment, suffering as a consequence for the punishment of their sins.
SPEAKER_00: That is the reality that the Bible paints.
SPEAKER_00: That every person that we know that does not come into a relationship with Jesus Christ by faith alone, through grace alone, based on the finished work of Christ alone, that every person who does not have a relationship with Jesus Christ will face the consequences of the rejection of Jesus Christ for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Bible teaches.
SPEAKER_00: And it's an unavoidable reality.
SPEAKER_00: We don't like to think about it.
SPEAKER_00: We don't like to imagine in our minds a reality that everybody we know, every loved one, every family member, every friend, every neighbor, every associate, every coworker, everybody that we know is going to one of two places when he or she dies.
SPEAKER_00: Either they have a relationship with Jesus Christ and they will be carried to the presence of God and they will be there for all of eternity, or else, because of their rejection of Christ, they will suffer the consequences of the punishment for the sins that they have committed during this life.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the Bible teaches.
SPEAKER_00: That's the reality of what every person we will ever meet faces.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't ask for much.
SPEAKER_00: A moment of comfort.
SPEAKER_00: If it were possible, and it's not possible, but if it were possible for just him to receive one moment of relief from the anguish of the flame of the punishment of what he's going, that's all his request is.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't ask for much.
SPEAKER_00: And yet the request is denied.
SPEAKER_00: Abraham says, Child, remember that in your lifetime you received good things.
SPEAKER_00: Lazarus, in like manner, bad things.
SPEAKER_00: But notice in eternity, God has no mercy for those who haven't trusted in Christ, in God's perfect justice.
SPEAKER_00: The rich man was now receiving the right punishment that was his.
SPEAKER_00: And death ended the possibility of a person entering into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: One author says this these two men had lived practically right next door to one another, but now they were separated forever.
SPEAKER_00: Here, the bridgeless chasm between Hades and the bosom of Abraham, we see the great divorce between heaven and hell.
SPEAKER_00: He says there's a great gulf fixed between so that no one can cross it.
SPEAKER_00: And so now the rich man offers a second plea.
SPEAKER_00: He asks for mercy for himself, but now he asks for mercy and a miracle for his family.
SPEAKER_00: Notice in verse 27, he says, Then I beg you, Father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so they may warn them lest they also come into this place of torment.
SPEAKER_00: Again, he wants Lazarus to do his bidding.
SPEAKER_00: And for the first time, maybe in his entire existence, he in some way begins to think of somebody other than himself and have uh some twisted concern for others.
SPEAKER_00: And he asks if Lazarus could rise from the dead or appear to them, then they would believe.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I forgot to mention this Lazarus here is not uh the Lazarus that we find that the brother of Mary and Martha, who was also raised, uh who was raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we find that in John 11.
SPEAKER_00: This is not that individual.
SPEAKER_00: But yet the request is if he could just rise from the dead, then they would believe.
SPEAKER_00: But notice what is said here.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: Let them hear them.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss what's being said here.
SPEAKER_00: What is said here is this request for a miracle, the request for the dramatic and the miraculous as an instrument to persuade and convince somebody.
SPEAKER_00: And the response is they have the written word of God, and that is enough.
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, they don't need a miracle, they don't need a demonstration of spectacular and and and uh and signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_00: They have the written word of God that is enough.
SPEAKER_00: And so a debate ensues.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 30, he he challenges, he pushes back on what Abraham has said here.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, No, Father Abraham, but if somebody goes to them from the dead, they will repent.
SPEAKER_00: He says, if they could just see, if they could just see a miracle, if they could just see somebody rise from the dead, or an apparition, a vision, if if his spirit returned and they were able to see if there was just some type of miracle, then they would believe.
SPEAKER_00: Then that would be persuasive, that would convince them, that would that would change their hardened heart and would enable them to believe because they saw something that was unexplainable and miraculous and divine.
SPEAKER_00: And if all we had, if we were able to present miracles to people, then they would believe.
SPEAKER_00: Then they would be convinced.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what this man argues.
SPEAKER_00: And Abraham says to him, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this man was probably thinking in his own life.
SPEAKER_00: He was a religious man, most likely.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it seems that he knew Moses and the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: He knew God's word, and he was probably thinking to himself, I had God's word my whole life, and I ignored it, and I disregarded it, and I spurned it and I rejected it, and my brothers will do the same thing to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: So send a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: But what the Bible says here is if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, if they cannot be convinced by the truth and the reality of the power of God's word, nothing in this created order will change their hearts and minds.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is God's word sufficient, it is the only thing in the entire universe that can be presented to a person to bring them to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is enough, it is sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, there is nothing greater and nothing more persuasive that can be given to an individual to help them to see their need and the reality of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: If they don't hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And keep in mind, when the other Lazarus did rise from the dead, the Pharisees wanted to kill him again.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't convert them, it didn't change their hearts, it didn't convince them of the truth of the message and the person and the ministry of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: No, that was, they wanted to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, they wanted to kill Jesus all the more.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus did rise from the dead, and instead of believing, they tried to cover it up.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus rose from the dead, he met two men on the road to Emmaus.
SPEAKER_00: You may recall this story in Luke 24.
SPEAKER_00: It's following the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: These men don't know the reality of what has gone on, and they're traveling.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they're going to the village of Emmaus in Luke chapter 24.
SPEAKER_00: And as they're on their way, Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, uh uh comes to them, but they were hindered from seeing who Jesus was.
SPEAKER_00: Their eyes were kept from recognizing him, it says in verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: And they're holding this conversation with each other, and Jesus asked him, What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: And the one of the men named Cleopus answers, he says, Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn't know these things that have happened there in these days?
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, What things?
SPEAKER_00: And they said, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed and word, before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him.
SPEAKER_00: But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and besides all this, it's now the third day since these things happened.
SPEAKER_00: Moreover, some women of our company amazed us.
SPEAKER_00: They were in the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had seen a vision of an angel who said he was alive.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Jesus at this moment, who was there, could have lifted the veil from their eyes and said, Look, here, see my hands, see my side.
SPEAKER_00: It is, it is, it is I.
SPEAKER_00: But what does Jesus do?
SPEAKER_00: It says in verse 25, and he said to them, O foolish ones, how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
SPEAKER_00: Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?
SPEAKER_00: And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
SPEAKER_00: Here it is, the resurrected Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And when he is there with these two men, he points to the written word of God and the persuasive power that is there to help them to see.
SPEAKER_00: And that same word is the word that we have today.
SPEAKER_00: We've walked through these stories, this story, and we've seen four unavoidable realities.
SPEAKER_00: We only have one life to live.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know how long it is, we don't know how many days we have, if we have minutes or hours or days or weeks or months or years or decades, we don't know how long we have in this life.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody is guaranteed another moment of another day.
SPEAKER_00: And we only have one life to live.
SPEAKER_00: And the decision that you make in this life to accept Christ, to accept the gospel, to believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross, to pay the penalty for sin, to ask for forgiveness of sins, and ask Christ to come into your life, that decision is one that you can only make here and now in this life.
SPEAKER_00: After death, the Bible says, comes the judgment.
SPEAKER_00: There is no second chance.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, now is the acceptable time.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, today is the day of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: This goes for each one of us, and it goes for every person that we know.
SPEAKER_00: And if you will not accept and believe the word of God, there is nothing else in this created order that will convince you of the truth of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It is what God has given, it is sufficient, it is enough, and it is the greatest thing that we have.
SPEAKER_00: If we want someone to come to Christ, we should not seek miracles or special circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: We should preach to them the good news found in the Bible and allow God's spirit to work in their hearts, to open their eyes, to soften their hearts, to turn them from darkness into light.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you're sitting here this morning and you're saying, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: If today were my last day on this earth, I don't know where I would go when I die.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that I would go to be with God in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what my destiny is.
SPEAKER_00: I hope so, maybe so, but I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00: Don't leave this building today without making sure that you know where you're going when you die.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ said that all who come to him in nowise will be cast out, that he came to seek and to save the lost, that he came not for the healthy, but for the sick, for those who are who are burdened and heavy laden.
SPEAKER_00: He came to give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: But that's a decision that you need to make now in this life and not to put it off.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says if you turn to him in faith, you will be forgiven, you will receive eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: If you hear his voice, don't harden your heart.
SPEAKER_00: There's only one life to live.
SPEAKER_00: The fact is, is that your decision to accept or reject Christ has eternal consequences.
SPEAKER_00: And after death comes the judgment.
SPEAKER_00: And so I present to you the gospel and God's word.
SPEAKER_00: To put your trust in Christ, to believe that he died and rose again, to pay the penalty for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: And ask him for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Would you join me as I lead us in prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Father God, as we read the story of Lazarus and the rich man, we realize that they represent us.
SPEAKER_00: We are one of those two men.
SPEAKER_00: Either by having a relationship with you through Christ, we look forward to eternity with you.
SPEAKER_00: Or else, because we have chosen to live our life in independence of you, going our own way, doing our own thing, living our lives in our terms, that we will face the consequences for all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray for each one here.
SPEAKER_00: If there is someone here who right now wants to accept you, that they will pray these words.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I know that I'm a sinner and I don't deserve to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins so that I might be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: And that he was buried and physically rose again on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: I ask you now to forgive me for my sins, to come into my life the best I know how.
SPEAKER_00: I turn away from my sin and my independence, and I turn to you, trusting you to be my savior and to be the leader of my life as my Lord and Master.
SPEAKER_00: I pray these things in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you've prayed that, I want to encourage you after this service to come and find me.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to talk to you and give you some uh some information to help you on your spiritual journey.