You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
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Turn with me this morning to Luke 16, page 875 of the Bible in the pews in front of you.
Last week we heard Jesus address the issue of money, of wealth, in order to get at our hearts,
what we really value, what we really worship.
And that same conversation continues in the rest of Luke 16 today.
As Jesus enters through the door of money, rich and poor, to get at eternal matters of heaven and hell.
Honestly, I've really struggled with this passage this week.
If you have a bulletin, you can see where the outline was when it was time to print the bulletins.
It's a little further along now.
But I've decided that the best way for us to consider this text and its challenges to us
is to walk through it together and to talk about it as we go.
So let's pray and ask God to help all of us in that.
And then we'll read the passage as we walk through it.
Pray with me.
God, this is your word.
God, and I'm so grateful for that.
It reminds me that you want us to hear it.
That you want us to be shaped by it.
That your spirit will use it.
And so, Father, keep teaching me this morning.
And would you be so kind to us as to use the foolishness of what is preached
to bring eternal light and hope and life to us
because of your great mercy and grace.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So last week, we finished up with verse 13.
You cannot serve God and money.
What you value and love is of utmost importance.
Is it the things of God or the things of this world?
It can't be both.
And as we turn to verse 14, we find some listening to Jesus
who were told explicitly, love money.
The Pharisees, who were lovers of money,
heard all these things and they ridiculed Jesus.
The Pharisees, the religious leaders, the ones who were teaching others,
they ridiculed Jesus.
They mock Him, which we'll find out in a minute is not really a good idea.
But why?
Why are they ridiculing Jesus?
Well, they loved money, the text tells us.
And they saw no problem with this.
All of the teaching at the time was telling them
that that was a reasonable thing to do.
Financial prosperity and wealth was a sign of God's blessing.
Poverty was viewed as a punishment from God.
And here's Jesus saying, these two things don't go together.
Well, you can't chase both of them at the same time.
And they laugh.
No way, Jesus.
Now we know you've lost it.
We're plenty holy here and God's keeping the money coming right in.
It's the poor guy you ought to be suspicious of.
This guy's way off.
I think this attitude is more true in our hearts than we would care to admit.
The health and wealth gospel is exploding here and around the world,
becoming increasingly popular.
And even though many of us would say we don't hold to some of its assertions,
we're drawn to read a book by a slick-talking, good-looking, successful, well-marketed Christian leader, aren't we?
Certainly he must know something.
Successful as he is.
Try this for just a minute.
Picture for me in your minds just an average Christian guy.
Just picture one.
See if you can just picture a Christian in your head.
I'm willing to bet that for most of us, the image we get in our heads is white,
somewhat upper-middle class, well-mannered, well-spoken.
For most of us, that is what pops into our minds when I tell you to picture a Christian.
But most Christians today are, and through history, far from affluent.
And most suffer greatly.
You probably think if you went to Chick-fil-A tomorrow, because you can't go today,
but if you went tomorrow, you could hang out for about five minutes
and pretty much kind of pick out who the Christians are.
You know, if you hang around people for just a little while, you can figure that out.
Just watching, right?
It's the ones who say, my pleasure.
That's always the ones to be looking for.
But we need to caution ourselves when we think that way.
Mere outward appearances are often misleading, aren't they?
See, Jesus is going to upend these expectations
and particularly challenge the Pharisees and us on our outward righteousness.
Verse 15.
He said to them, to the Pharisees, Jesus says,
You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.
For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
You like to look good, to appear religious, to have people think well of you,
but you're not fooling God, Jesus says.
Your external law-keeping righteousness without regard for your heart,
for deeply loving God may be praised by others,
but it's abominable to God.
And he continues.
The law and the prophets were until John.
Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached,
and everyone forces his way into it.
But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away
than for one dot of the law to become void.
Yes, the Messiah has come, and that changes things, Jesus is saying.
But the law stays.
In fact, elsewhere, what does Jesus say about the law?
That he has come not to abolish it, but to fulfill it.
It's an unchanging picture of God's character,
and it exposes our hearts, doesn't it?
To call us back to his heart.
It shows us God's heart, and it shows us ours,
where ours doesn't look like God's,
to call us back to that heart.
Jesus' point here is that the Pharisees,
who pride themselves on keeping the law,
actually are neglecting it.
The Pharisees, who think they are experts on God's heart,
are actually missing it altogether.
Instead of listening to God's word and clearly letting it do what it's supposed to do,
expose them and shape them,
show them where their hearts are misguided,
instead of doing that, they've lowered the bar
to a place they can reach,
so they can feel good about themselves,
so they can look good to others.
Jesus says that's so dangerous.
God hates it.
And Jesus says that in the context of how they pursue money
and neglect the poor.
They're failing to take his word seriously,
and when we do that, it's actually a rejection of God himself.
This is what he will talk about at length in the parable that's coming up here.
But first, he gives another quick example,
a one-verse example before he gives a ten-verse example.
And it may seem out of place here, verse 18,
everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery,
and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
What's Jesus saying?
Where does that show up?
Well, the Pharisees over time had written law codes,
many of them lengthy codes,
with reasons for divorce
that basically meant that men could get a divorce,
get out of their marriages,
for just about any reason at all.
And Jesus is making the point
that the law of God in his word still stands.
This issue of divorce is a significant one
and a sensitive one in our own context, right?
So I actually want us, after Easter,
to come back to this verse
and just talk a little bit more about what it means for us
and how our hearts engage with God's law in that regard.
So we'll do that in a couple of weeks.
But for the context of this passage,
what Jesus is saying is that
he's giving the Pharisees an example
of how they're lowering the standard of God's law
in order to keep it from exposing their hearts,
exposing them as frauds, as sinners,
as those who are needy.
Jesus is emphasizing the seriousness of God's word.
And there are several things in this passage
he's urging us to take seriously,
and this is the first,
it's God's word.
It's call on our lives.
So he said that briefly with regard to divorce.
You need to take God's word seriously.
But now he's going to tell a story
to make the same point with regard to rich and poor.
Tracking with me?
This is example two now for Jesus engaging their hearts.
He's going to tell a story to expose the Pharisees' hearts
and our hearts.
This parable we're about to read,
the story of the rich man and Lazarus,
is going to remind us primarily
that our response to God and his word,
in this case particularly with regard to money,
has eternal consequences.
Remember, this is a story Jesus tells
to engage our hearts with that particular point.
He's not recounting historical events,
historical details.
He's teaching our hearts important lessons
through a story to engage our hearts, right?
You do that with stories.
Jesus is telling this story to engage our hearts
and to teach us these important things.
Listen to the first part of the parable.
It starts at verse 19.
There was a rich man who was clothed in purple
and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.
And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus
covered with sores
who desired to be fed with what fell
from the rich man's table.
Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
The poor man died and was carried by the angels
to Abraham's side.
The rich man also died and was buried
and in Hades, being in torment,
he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off
and Lazarus at his side.
And he called out,
Father Abraham, have mercy on me
and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water
and cool my tongue
for I'm in anguish in this flame.
But Abraham said,
Child, remember that you in your lifetime
received your good things
and Lazarus in like manner bad things.
But now he is comforted here
and you are in anguish.
And besides all this,
between us and you,
a great chasm has been fixed
in order that those who would pass from here to you
may not be able
and none may cross from there to us.
Perhaps the most obvious aspect of this story
is the remarkable study and contrasts, right?
These two men, very different.
This first one's not merely a man who is rich,
but he is lavishly rich
and he feels it.
Enjoying fine food
and clothes fit for a king all the time.
And right outside his front door
where he would pass by all the time
is not merely a man who is poor,
but he is devastatingly poor.
And he feels it.
The aching hunger that longs for any scraps.
The bread they would use
to scoop up the other food that they were eating.
He just wants that
or the crumbs from their table.
He's so hungry.
The sharp pain of wounds
being licked by wild dogs
that roam the streets of the city.
The humiliating reality
of not being able to fend for himself.
Two very different men, right?
But they both die
as we all do eventually.
And there's a great role reversal
that happens there, isn't there?
Jesus flips the script upside down
when he gives us a glimpse into eternity.
Things are very different.
First, Lazarus, the poor man, dies
and perhaps no one cares.
There's no mention even of a burial.
We would expect here in Jesus' time
to hear of public officials
tossing his body in a cart,
taking it outside the city to Gehenna,
the waste dump to dispose of it.
But actually, instead,
we get a window into God's heart
for the poor whom he loves.
Jesus says he was carried by angels
to Abraham's side.
Don't you love that?
So far from being cursed or despised by God
or even just ignored or overlooked by heaven,
Lazarus is cherished and beloved
by the hosts of heaven.
He went from a seat of dishonor
to a place of high honor in heaven,
close to the heart of Father Abraham.
He went from discomfort to comfort.
He went from deep suffering to great glory.
Don't you love God's heart
for the poor and the suffering?
Is it any wonder that many slaves
in this country years ago
began to sing a song?
I remember loving it as a child.
Swing low, sweet chariot,
coming for to carry me home.
I looked over Jordan and what did I see?
Coming for to carry me home.
A band of angels coming after me.
Coming for to carry me home.
I love that.
Because their hope
and their home
was in heaven.
Never home here.
Never comfortable here.
Never honored here.
But Jesus says,
don't miss God's heart
and think that despised in this world
means despised in heaven.
No, that's not what it's like.
Angels come and carry him
and place him against Abraham's chest
so he can rest.
If you're poor,
if you're suffering,
if you're aching with emptiness
here in this world,
I've got good news.
If you trust Jesus,
you're not home yet.
And he will honor you
and comfort you
and fulfill you
forever.
And you'll be home.
But then the rich man,
too,
dies,
doesn't he?
It's not quite such a warm story.
He, of course,
is buried,
likely as lavishly
as he lived,
but then the reversal
of fortunes
is equally stark.
Tormented
in hell,
not heaven.
in great anguish,
not comforted at all.
Far off
from Abraham,
distant from the one
he thought he was close to,
not at his side.
Pleading for a drop
of water
from one
whose name
he knows,
Lazarus,
send Lazarus,
but whom he never
apparently gave
a crumb of bread to.
It's a heart-wrenching
picture,
isn't it?
It should be.
He's reminded
by Abraham
that he received
his good things
on earth.
Lots of them,
right?
Lots of good things.
That's where he
invested his treasure.
It reminds me
of all those passages
about doing things
for the praise of men
and being told
that we've received
our reward
in full
here.
Now,
there's no relief.
It's too late
to change his station.
He has neglected
God's heart
and he endures
torment
and anguish.
If we were watching
a video of this scene,
I think we would
turn our eyes away.
hell is hard
to stomach
for all of us,
isn't it?
In fact,
our grasp
of God's
utter holiness
and our
wretched
sinfulness
is so limited
that for us,
because of that,
hell's hard
to believe in.
while we would
be misunderstanding
a parable
like this
to suggest
that Jesus
is giving us
a detailed map
of heaven
and hell
and how all
of this works,
it's not at all
going too far
to see the clear
reminder of the
reality
of both heaven
and,
in particular,
hell.
The torment
of hell
without which
this story
Jesus tells
makes no sense.
The permanence
of hell
in this
great chasm
that separates
people who can't
go back
and forth.
Jesus affirms
these teachings
in many other
places
and we dare
not ignore
them.
It's a warning,
isn't it?
That's why
he's teaching
this parable.
It's a warning
for hearts
that love
money,
for hearts
that take
God's law
lightly,
for hearts
that have
a hard time
imagining
a loving
God
punishing
sin.
It's a warning
that we must
heed God's
word.
We should
take God's
word seriously
and Jesus
is urging
us now
to take
eternity
seriously.
Don't delay
until it's
too late
to wrestle
with matters
of eternity
like it was
for the rich
man.
Is the
seriousness
of eternity
grabbing your
heart
for yourself?
What about
for the
sake of
others?
Do you
speak of
eternity
with them
and plead
with them
as though
heaven and
hell were
real places?
And once
we die
it's too
late to
change
reservations
and switch
across the
chasm.
I think
for many
of us
it's hard
to imagine
ourselves
or our
friends and
neighbors who
are really
decent people
suffering
torment in
hell.
Can we
acknowledge
that?
It's just
not where
we picture
people who
look and
talk and
act very
much like
us.
It doesn't
seem to
fit.
We're decent
people,
upstanding
citizens,
better than
many others,
pretty accomplished
and successful
in general,
and Jesus
says that's
what I'm
warning you
about.
It's
tempting to
be taken
in by a
pretty good
outward
appearance in
this life
and to
connect that
with decent
results in
the next.
Don't
make that
mistake.
If you're
walking past
the poor
in this
life and
thinking you're
pretty good,
you may be
missing God's
heart and
His presence
forever.
And the
end of the
parable has
one final
interaction.
Jesus brings
us back to
the subject
of God's
word and
how we
respond to
it.
Listen for
that, verse
27.
The rich
man said,
then I beg
you, Father,
if Lazarus
can't come
over here to
me to give
me some
water, 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.
But Abraham
said, they
have Moses
and the
prophets, let
them hear
them.
And he
said, no,
no, Father
Abraham, but
if someone
goes to
them from
the dead,
they will
repent.
Abraham
said to
him, if
they do
not hear
Moses and
the prophets,
neither will
they be
convinced if
someone should
rise from
the dead.
The rich
man says,
well, it's
too late for
me, but at
least go warn
my brothers
about these
eternal realities
I'm experiencing.
And Abraham
responds, they
have the
warnings of
the Old
Testament
scriptures.
They know
them.
The rich
man responds
like many
of us, I
think, yeah,
yeah, that's
nice, but I
really didn't
take those
seriously.
I needed
more evidence.
If something
else, if I
had heard the
voice of
God, if I
had seen
something clearly
supernatural take
place right in
front of me,
then I would
have believed,
so how about
try that with
them?
Have you ever
felt that?
You ever
said something
like that?
Abraham says,
our unbelief,
our lack of
repentance, as it
were, is not
from lack of
evidence, but
rather from
hearts that love
and worship
things that are
not God,
things other
than God.
God's word is
sufficient.
His law
exposes us
and points
those of us
with hearts
that don't
match God's
heart to
our need
for someone
to live
and die
for us
and to
rise from
the dead.
In Jesus'
day, they
had a different
guy named
Lazarus, who
many had
watched walk
out of the
tomb, and
many Pharisees
and others
still did not
believe in
Jesus, right?
In our
day, we
have now the
testimony of
the risen
Jesus Himself,
the eyewitness
accounts of
many who saw
Him, and the
evidence of
His resurrection
power in this
world and
through His
church, and
still many of
us don't
believe.
The rich man
knows what's
needed.
Repentance.
He identifies
it really
clearly.
He sees it
clearly on
this side of
eternity.
Verse 30
says it this
way,
No,
Father Abraham,
but if
someone goes
to them from
the dead,
they will
repent.
That's what
they need.
They need
repentance.
We need our
hearts exposed
by God's
law so that
we see we
fall short
of His
glory.
We need
then, when
that happens,
we need
then not to
lower or
relax the
standard so
we can meet
it.
That's maybe
what the
Pharisees were
suggesting, that
they could
measure up to
God's law.
What we need
is for the
standard to be
kept high and
us to be
exposed as
falling short
so that we
turn to
God.
Cry out for
His rescue.
Ask Him to
give us His
heart to
follow His
word.
And if we
take eternity
seriously, and
we must, if
we take God's
word seriously,
Moses and the
prophets will
tell us we
must take
repentance
seriously.
The point
here is much
broader than
rich and poor,
isn't it?
it's getting
at our
hearts.
But that's
the window,
the primary
one here,
that Jesus is
using into the
Pharisees'
hearts.
I've been
convicted this
week, it's
one we don't
look through
enough at our
own hearts.
We're used to
it.
We're comfortable.
We need to
have our own
hearts exposed
by God's
law so that
we turn to
Him in
repentance.
So as we
close, just a
chance for us
to take all
three of these
things seriously
this morning.
I'm just going
to give you a
sampling.
A lot more
verses we could
read.
But starting
with Moses and
the prophets,
I'm going to
include Proverbs,
a book of
wisdom for
living in
relationship with
God.
These are
things the
Pharisees had
been told that
we have as
well.
Leviticus 19,
you shall not
strip your
vineyard bare,
neither shall
you gather the
fallen grapes of
your vineyard.
You shall leave
them for the
poor and for
the sojourner.
I am the
Lord your God.
In Deuteronomy,
if among you one
of your brothers
should become
poor, you shall
not harden your
heart or shut
your hand against
your poor
brother, but you
shall open your
hand to him and
lend him sufficient
for his need,
whatever it may
be.
You shall give to
him freely and
your heart shall
not be grudging
when you give to
him.
Because for this
the Lord your
God will bless
you in all your
work and all you
undertake.
For there will
never cease to be
poor in the land.
Therefore I command
you, you shall open
wide your hand to
your brother, to the
needy and to the
poor in your land.
The prophets are
constantly calling
God's people back to
God's heart and his
law, aren't they?
Just a couple of
them.
Isaiah 58,
Is not this the
fast which I choose
to loosen the bonds
of wickedness, to
undo the bands of
the yoke, to let the
oppressed go free and
break every yoke?
Is it not to divide
your bread with the
hungry and bring
the homeless poor
into the house?
When you see the
naked to cover him
and not to hide
yourself from your
own flesh?
Amos chapter 5,
Therefore because you
trample on the poor
and you exact taxes
of grain from him,
you have built houses
of hewn stone, but
you shall not dwell
in them.
You've planted
pleasant vineyards, but
you shall not drink
their wine.
But let justice roll
down like waters,
and righteousness
like an ever-flowing
stream.
Zechariah 7,
Thus has the Lord
of hosts said,
Dispense true justice
and practice kindness
and compassion each
to his brother, and
do not oppress the
widow or the orphan,
the stranger or the
poor.
Do not devise evil in
your heart against one
another.
Proverbs says it
shorter and clearer
perhaps for some of
us.
Whoever despises his
neighbor is a sinner,
but blessed is he who
is generous to the
poor.
Whoever oppresses a
poor man insults his
maker, but he who is
generous to the needy
honors him.
Whoever closes his
ear to the cry of the
poor will himself call
out and not be
answered.
We could keep reading
all day.
I think you understand
what God's word is
saying.
Whoever despises his
neighbor is a sinner,
but blessed is he who's
generous to the poor.
Whoever closes his
ear to the cry of the
poor will himself call
out and not be
answered.
The rich man experienced
that the hard way,
didn't he?
Jesus affirms all of
these laws.
Not one will pass away,
right?
And he adds to them,
Luke 14, when you give
a feast, invite the poor,
the crippled, the lame,
the blind.
James chapter 2, we get a
good look at our hearts.
My brothers, show no
partiality as you hold
the faith in our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lord
of glory.
Imagine this, if a man
wearing a gold ring and
fine clothing comes into
your assembly and a poor
man in shabby clothing
also comes in, and if you
pay attention to the one
who wears the fine
clothing and say, you sit
here in a good place,
while you say to the
poor man, you stand over
there or sit down at my
feet, have you not then
made distinctions among
yourselves and become
judges with evil thoughts?
Listen, my beloved
brothers, has not God
chosen those who are
poor in the world to be
rich in faith and heirs
of the kingdom?
He could have said,
hasn't God decided to
bring the poor to
Abraham's side in heaven?
But you've dishonored
the poor man.
So he challenges us
later in that chapter,
if a brother or sister
is poorly clothed and
lacking in daily food,
and one of you says to
them, go in peace, be
warmed and filled without
giving them the things
needed for the body,
what good is that?
So also faith by itself,
if it does not have
works, is dead.
1 John 3, if anyone has
the world's goods and sees
his brother in need, yet
closes his heart against
him, how does God's love
abide in him?
Does the law of God
convict your heart?
Do our lives indicate
that we embrace God's
law and share his heart
for the poor, or would
we just like to think we
do?
Do we really believe that
Jesus is good news of
great joy for all people,
even those who look
different from us?
By the way, don't just
tell yourself, I don't
know any poor people,
there aren't any right
outside my front door
like the rich man had.
You know, the closest
elementary school to this
church has 72% of its
students below the poverty
line for free lunch.
There's been a homeless
camp within walking
distance of this church
property for several years.
South Huntsville alone
has three separate
Section 8 housing
complexes.
Madison County alone
currently needs an
additional 50 foster
families to care for
kids they need to place.
There are people working
in each of our offices,
on our streets, and just
about every place we go
to eat or shop, who know
material need deeply.
If you want help engaging
there with God's heart, if
you don't really know where
to start but your heart
wants to, talk with Robert
Blevins.
He's sitting over here.
He's here on staff, not
because he's got all the
answers, but he's here to
help equip us to love as
God has called us to.
He would love to sit down and
have coffee, I mean tea, he
doesn't drink coffee.
He'd love to have tea with
you, to meet with your
small group, to talk with
you about what this could
look like in your life.
But this is really important.
Don't leave here thinking
that that is repentance.
That may be fruit of
repentance in your life.
Repentance, remember
repentance turns first where?
From bad deeds and failures to
good deeds and successes?
Repentance turns first to God.
Turns back to Him and seeks
His forgiveness first.
And then His heart.
Do you know there's only one
character in all of Jesus'
parables who gets a name?
Lazarus.
The poor homeless beggar.
You know what Lazarus means?
God helps.
Don't leave here today with
your hope in doing better.
That's not what will save you.
You'll need a new heart for
that and you can't do that
for yourself.
Our hope is that God
helps.
That God sends a Savior.
And we get to celebrate that
in a special way this week.
A Savior who lives for us,
who dies to offer us
forgiveness of our sins
for all of our failures
so they can be forgiven forever.
And then He rises from the dead
to give us new life
and the hope of having new hearts
that love like God's.
that's what His resurrection power
does in those who
trust Him.
Today if you hear His voice,
don't harden your hearts
but have your heart broken
and turn to Him
and have it healed
forever.
Let's pray.
Father, we confess together
our great sin,
our failures.
Your law,
one verse is enough
to expose our hearts.
To show us that we don't
live and love
as you have called us to.
And so Father,
first we ask
for your forgiveness.
We need the blood of Jesus
to cover us,
not our own efforts.
And then Father,
as it does,
as we continue to drink
deeply of His grace,
might you make us
a community
that loves the way you love,
that reflects your heart
rather than just the way we feel
or the world around us.
Might we love
so that others know
of a God
who loves like this
so richly,
so deeply,
so eternally.
Thank you for your word.
Would you use it in our hearts
for the sake of your glory
in Jesus' name.
Amen.
For more information,
visit us online
at southwood.org.
for more information,
we'll find out
in Jesus' name.
Thank you.
For more information,
we'll find out
in Jesus' name.
In Jesus' name,
in Jesus' name.
예요.
earth.
giveaway there.
You know,
and the yes,
when you put them there,
and I'll be living there..
You know,
I'll be there too.
in Jesus' name.
In Jesus' name.
I love it.
How is it?