Parables of Grace: The Parable of Lazarus and Dives | Guest Speaker: Cameron Clark

As many of you know, our pastor Russ is on sabbatical.

And uh while he has been out, uh some of the elders have been asked to step in and teach.

Uh and as you can probably imagine, that's made someone like me a little nervous.

Um I don't normally get in front of people and talk.

Uh and when I do, it's normally with a big projector with a PowerPoint presentation, uh, really boring.

Uh I can promise you I have never said the word sumptuously in front of a group of people either.

So being nervous, I have been practicing and practicing and practicing.

No guarantees you'll be able to tell I practice, but I promise I have uh put in the time and work.

So yesterday I I was uh finally ready for an audience rehearsal.

Um so I guess that's one of the benefits of having a big family.

I can practice in front of a lot of people at any given time.

Uh my uh my family's been down to the beach.

I came down, I came back home a couple days early.

So I've had a couple days to myself to uh to practice and be bored out of my mind.

Uh so yesterday morning I waited all day for my wife and my four children to come back home from the beach.

It was a long six-plus hour drive, uh, but I was uh ready for them to be home.

So finally I saw them pull into the driveway.

I came and uh met them outside, gave them all hugs.

I could see they were totally worn out, but I didn't let that distract me.

I marched them straight into our den, had them sit down on the sofa.

Uh, I grabbed uh a high chair, put it in the middle to use as my podium, just like this, and uh told them to please be quiet and be attentive while I went over to sermon.

What in the world could possibly go wrong with that?

So immediately after I started, uh, one of my daughters decided to take her beach hat and make it into a frisbee.

If uh if you know my family, you can probably imagine which one of the my daughters that was.

Then the next thing that happened was uh my little one, my one-year-old, decided she wanted her high chair back.

So she got down on the ground, crawled straight to me, pulled herself up on the on my my podium, and uh tried to take my notes and throw them down.

So when she finally realized that that wasn't gonna happen, she just decided she wanted to cry.

So, needless to say, I got through the rehearsal.

It went uh, I think it went okay.

Went well enough that my family decided to even come to church today.

So that's a good sign.

Um but before we begin, just wanted to just go on the record.

If anyone does feel the need to uh throw frisbee here this morning, I'm prepared, I'm ready for that.

If anyone wants to take my notes, I think I can fight you off.

Or if anyone uh decides they want to just cry, I can I can get through that as well.

So, anyways, before I start, uh let's bow our heads in prayer and I'll pray for us.

Father, we thank you for giving us life this morning.

We thank you for the opportunity to meet here together and hear your word and learn more about you.

Please be with us as we study this passage.

Speak to our hearts through your word.

Amen.

Today's teaching comes from the book of Luke, chapter 16, 19 through 31.

Luke 16 · chapter mention

It's a nice, soft parable where Jesus tells a sweet little story about birds.

Just kidding, it is anything but that.

Uh in fact, a lot of Bible scholars say this is the most stern of Jesus' parables.

Uh, in the parable, we're gonna talk about things like wealth, poverty, status, death, and hell.

This passage is full of uh important themes and packed with insight for our lives.

So we're gonna begin by reading back through uh the passage.

We'll take a couple verses at a time, and then at the end I've got a couple things to uh to discuss.

So let's set the stage.

Jesus is traveling with an ever-growing crowd of people.

Many of these people are honestly seeking to learn more about him, figure out who this Jesus is.

Still, there's a lot of these people that are Pharisees, and the only thing they're there trying to do is catch Jesus saying something wrong, catch him doing something wrong, uh, but they're ultimately just trying to justify their own self-righteousness and the status that they've accumulated in their communities.

So, with that, let's uh let's begin with uh verses 19 through 21.

There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.

At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores, and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table.

Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

So here Jesus is setting the imagery for the story.

On one side we have the rich man.

He lived in total luxury, feasted every day, and uh had the finest of clothes.

So he this guy even had a home with a gate.

He had an estate at a time when people didn't have estates.

Um at that time, a rich man would have been part of the Jewish community.

He would have followed the Jewish law, and uh.

I just can't even imagine what Lazarus must have been like.

I don't even think we can probably even put it in the context in our own terms.

We're not talking about the U.S.

poverty line.

We're talking about total, total poverty.

Um so we literally have one extreme to the other.

We have the rich man who wanted for nothing.

He could provide himself with everything that he might need, more than he would ever need.

And we have Lazarus, who was completely dependent on other people for everything.

So, one of the most important things to note from this section is in verse 21, where we read that Lazarus longed to eat the scraps off the rich man's table.

This is critical because it points right to the heart of the rich man.

Though this rich man feasted every day and lived in luxury, he never offered food or comfort to Lazarus.

He had no concern for the man.

He must have seen him there, probably saw him there every day, but uh he never never helped him out.

His heart was as cold as it could be.

So let's read on to verses 22 through 24.

The time came when the beggar died, and the angels carried him to Abraham's side.

The rich man also died and was buried.

In Hades, where he lived in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.

So he called to him, Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.

So can you imagine the Pharisees sitting there while Jesus is telling the story as he describes the rich man?

I mean, we can all read this and we know that Jesus is really describing these Pharisees that are sitting there.

But as Jesus is talking and describing them all, and Jesus says that they both die, I could just imagine the Pharisees thinking, finally, Jesus is going to acknowledge all that we have here, all the following of the law and everything we've done here, and he's going to finally acknowledge all of that and show us our rewards in heaven.

After all, they thought, we've earned everything we have here, so why wouldn't our reward be even greater in heaven?

And then to imagine as Jesus continues and explains that the rich man dies and goes to hell.

Furthermore, as a rich man is in hell, he looks up and sees Lazarus standing next to Abraham in heaven.

So one of the most amazing things to me about this part of the passage is found in verse 24.

Even though the rich man was in hell, he still had not lost his sense of entitlement.

If you notice, he still thought he had status and authority over Lazarus.

In that passage you see, he asked for Lazarus to go dip his finger in water to go quench his thirst.

It's amazing.

You think of this rich man down in hell looking up and thinking he has authority over something in heaven.

How many times do you think Lazarus needed his thirst to be quenched during his life?

The rich man never offered any help.

Now the roles were reversed.

It's also important to note that in verse 24 we see a vivid illustration of the agony of hell.

You see where the rich man is just begging for even a drip, a drop of water to quench his thirst.

So let's read on to verses 25 and 26.

But Abraham replied, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony.

And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.

So in these verses we see the finality of death.

Death is real, and only two outcomes await us.

Once our our fate is set, there's no changing, there's no crossing from one to the other.

After death, there are no additional chances, no matter what the argument might be.

Reading on to verses 27 through 31, he answered, Then I beg you, Father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers, let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.

Abraham replied, They have Moses and the prophets, let him listen to them.

No, Father Abraham, he said, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.

He said to him, If they have not listened to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced, even if someone rises from the dead.

So we see throughout this conversation that the rich man still has kept his sense of status and entitlement.

But finally, towards the end, he's getting to the point where the reality is setting in for him.

He calls out one final request for Abraham to help save his family members from sharing his fate.

But in my opinion, the best part of this parable is found in verses 30 and 31.

So the rich man's story is full of irony, but him asking for someone to come back from the dead to save his family, I think, takes the cake.

So as Jesus is telling the story, he knows he's soon to be nailed to the cross, die, and rise from the dead.

He is literally going to be the exact thing the rich man is asking for.

Still, while he's telling the story, he knows verse 31 to be true that, quote, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.

So Jesus knew the whole time that even when they saw the empty tomb, they weren't going to believe.

Not even the reports and personal encounters of the risen Jesus would be enough to convince them.

So now we've read back through the passage and looked at some things more closely.

We can see that's got a lot of, the passage in the parable has a lot of insight, not just for the audience Jesus was talking to, but for our own lives.

So there's three main things I want to just point out and go back over.

I think they deserve a little more attention.

First, worldly wealth does not mean eternal suffering.

And conversely, poverty or the rejection of material things does not ensure heaven.

We all know this, right?

Money in itself is not good nor bad.

It's what we allow it to do to our hearts when it's placed in our hands or not placed in our hands that really matters.

Let's remember, being a Pharisee, the rich man had a lot of money and believed he had earned all of it.

He thought it was his reward through uh for proper living and good uh good choices.

He thought he had earned God's favor.

But truthfully, that rich man's success was his ultimate stumbling block.

It blinded him from ever seeing that he was in need of a savior.

So to me, the warning is clear.

Whether it's our works, our wealth, status, uh, power, uh, number of Instagram followers we may have, whatever it is that we put our identity in, or we have uh we put up on a pedestal to fulfill us, they're all going to be insufficient to satisfy God's standard.

You simply cannot earn your way to heaven.

Two, death is final and hell is real.

This parable gives a clear illustration of hell and we see its torment.

It also clearly defines the finality of death.

Once our lives come to an end, there are only two options for our eternity, and they are final.

Now, these aren't, this isn't a pleasant topic.

I didn't particularly enjoy this part of uh taking notes and studying, but I don't want the seriousness of death and hell to keep us from really learning something from what Jesus is uh is trying to say.

It's seeing the fate that uh we've been rescued from that really gives us a true appreciation for our rescuer.

See, we we wouldn't uh we wouldn't have the same appreciation, the same love for Jesus uh unless we knew what we were being saved from.

Um and it's only when we see this and we know this that our hearts can turn from greed and pride to thankfulness and humility.

Things that are were obviously missing from the rich man.

And third, in all, this parable is ultimately meant to point us to the cross and our need for Jesus.

So you notice we're not told too much about Lazarus.

We know he was poor, we know he was sick, we know he died, and we know he went to heaven.

But he's not the main character in this story.

This story is about the heart of the rich man and ultimately the heart of man.

Uh through this story, Jesus is driving home the same truths that we find in Isaiah 64, 6 and 1 John 5, 11 and 12.

I'm going to read both of those passages, and I think to really truly understand this parable, we have to read both of them and understand them together.

So Isaiah 64, 6.

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.

We all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind, our sins sweep us away.

And 1 John 5, 11 and 12.

And this is the testimony.

God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

Whoever has the Son has life.

Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

See, Jesus is teaching us that one day all of our works, if we have wealth, if we have status, whatever it is, they'll eventually fade away.

If that's all we have to put our hope in, if that's all we have faith in, it's going to get us about as far as it did for the rich man.

It's only through our faith in Jesus that our hearts can be transformed and we can have eternity in heaven like Lazarus.

So, in closing, let us not allow God's blessings here on earth to become our stumbling blocks or our idols.

Whether it be stability, good health, intellect, whatever, all of these things are temporary and they will wash away.

The only thing that will remain, the only thing that truly matters is the faith we have in Jesus.

Let's pray.

Dear Father, we thank you for giving us your word.

That you speak to us to our own lives through a story you told thousands of years ago.

Lord, you knew as you spoke those words that one day it would impact our lives here this morning.

We pray that you forgive us for the pride we take in what we have.

Give us hearts of admiration for you and the sacrifice you made for us, and also give us hearts filled with compassion for the people around us.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.