23 Jan

10/7/18     LUKE 16:19-31    “THE BIBLICAL TRUTH OF HEAVEN AND HELL”

We live in a world where you only believe what you see and that is why we have had such a decline in Christianity in this country.  People don’t know how to look for the wonders of God.  We are not open to the miracles of God for the most part.  This is the same way with heaven and hell.  People just don’t believe in either or one and not the other.  The Scripture today is probably one of the hardest in the Bible.  It is hard because it tells us exactly what is going to happen and we don’t want to hear it.  Jesus is not mincing any words here as he tells us a little about what hell is like.  I would like you to bear in mind as we take a look at the options we have, that there is Good News here.

I would like to open today with a story about the Post Office where I worked for 25 years.  This happened about 25 years ago or so when I was working from 12:30 to 9 PM.  The Fargo Post Office is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, plus all holidays.  My job was to work on vending machines and my desk was right behind the box section where people have their boxes.

One of my jobs when I was working at my desk was to answer the Dutch door when someone rang the doorbell after hours.  It was about 8:30 on this particular evening and it was in November.  Now, if you are familiar with the post office area in downtown Fargo, you know that it is not the best part of town even if they are trying to make it better.  We always had a problem with different kinds of homeless people coming into the lobby at night, especially in the winter, to warm up.   Generally, we would try to leave them alone as long as they weren’t bothering anyone or making trouble.  Unfortunately, we would have to kick them out around 4 AM before the big bosses showed up.  There wasn’t a lot of compassion from them.

Anyway, this fellow comes in and rings the doorbell.  We have a peephole in the door so I checked him out before answering.  He looked pretty normal so I opened the top of the door.  In front of me stood a clean shaven man who was about my size and appeared to be normal.  Then he asked me in a soft voice, “Could you sharpen these for me?”  He held out his hands to me and in them he must have had 20 pencils in each hand.  They were used pencils of all different sizes and colors.

I thought that I had heard him wrong so I said, “Pardon me, could you repeat that please?”  Once again the man said, “Could you sharpen these pencils please?”  I looked him in the eye and I knew I had trouble on my hands.  I said, “Sir, this is a post office.  We don’t sharpen pencils here.”  After I said this, the man totally lost his temper and went on a verbal rampage.  I got the door shut so I was safe.  But he continued to holler and curse and wave his arms as he backed out the outside doors.

I had thought that this was an innocent situation and it turned out not to be.  I had made a judgement call and I had been wrong.  I had thought that this was a perfectly normal and it turned out that it could have been very dangerous.  This is really very similar to the beggar and the rich man in the Scripture today.  Jesus is still addressing the Pharisees here and He is using the rich man to represent them.

And he is using extremes.  The rich man is very rich as he is dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.  Purple cloth was only worn by royalty or the very, very rich because it was so expensive.  And he wasn’t a terrible person because he allowed Lazarus to be by his gate.  He probably even let scraps of food be given to him.

Then we have Lazarus who was a beggar.  He lived at the gate so he could have been lame or crippled.  On top of that he had some sort of skin disease that created open sores all over his body.  Whatever his physical problem was, he was unable to keep the dogs from licking his sores.  Please try to keep in mind that these are wild dogs, not cute little tame ones like we have today.  And also remember that a Jew would never touch a dog or let a dog touch him because they were unclean.  And being clean to them was much more important than knowing God.

As the parable moves on, we find that both men die.  The rich man probably had a huge funeral with all his friends and neighbors coming.  In those days people assumed that people like the rich man went to heaven.  They would probably say things like, “He was such a good man that I know he is in heaven.”  We even hear these things today.  But when someone like Lazarus died, there were no mourners and probably no family.  There is a good chance that the body would have been put in the dump right outside of town.

I think that these kinds of things go on about us every day.  We are all, and I include myself as seen in the opening story, very judgmental of what we see on the outside.  I am sure that there is not a person here today that can hold their head up high and say that you don’t judge situations or other people.  We have to in order to survive in this wicked world of Satan but we have to be careful when we do.  Fortunately for us, that is not the way of God.

We see this when the beggar died he found himself in glory at the side of Abraham.  The rich man found himself in hell.  And he still doesn’t get it.  He is burning up and he still doesn’t get it.  He can see Abraham and Lazarus far away and he wants Lazarus to bring him some water.  He still thinks that he is important and Lazarus is nothing more than a servant.  He is in agony and torment.  This term is used four times in this parable.  We have seen in the past that when Jesus repeats something, then it is important and this is very, very important!  This place is real and it is beyond horrible.

Another thing to notice here is the separation from God.  The rich man cannot go to Lazarus and he cannot go back to the living.  He wants to send Lazarus back but this cannot happen.  It is in this life that we have a choice.  We can either choose heaven or hell. Once we get there, then there is no more choice.  This stuff is hard for us.

I have mentioned this in other services.  We often hear of people or maybe even ourselves in a moment of doubt say, “How can a loving caring God send us to such a terrible place as hell?”  And of course the answer is that He doesn’t.  As we can see by this passage, we send ourselves there by our own choice.  God gave us this free will and we make the choice.  He will not interfere with any choice you make.  However, God wants us all to come to Him and that is all He has ever wanted.

As we move on we find that the rich man wants to warn his brothers to change their ways or they will too come to this place of terrible torment.  But Abraham says and Abraham is representing God here, that they have the Prophets and Moses.  They have all the ancient written words of God in front of them.  In other words, they have the evidence they need in front of them just like the rich man had, just like we have!  And if that is not enough, then even raising someone from the dead will not convince them.  God has given us more than enough to show us the right way and still so many end up where the rich man is to this day.

And this is exactly what Jesus will do with another man named Lazarus in the near future.  He will raise him from the dead.  And the people will still not understand.  Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, walked on water, fed the 5000, fed the 4000, calmed the storm and I could go on and on as I have before.  The point is that the people still didn’t get it and they still don’t get it today.

When we look around us today we see so many rich men and women.  I have heard it from a hundred different people that when they die, they will be with their friends in hell so all is ok.  Please note that the rich man was by himself.  He had no friends near him.  He was in terrible torment.  He can see across the chasm but Lazarus cannot see him in return.  One of the definitions of hell is where there is no light which means that a total absence of God.  So if there is no light, then one could be close to his friends for eternity and not know it.  This is not a place where we want to be.  This place is to be avoided at all costs.  It is terrible, terrible place.

But so many people don’t care because they have been blinded by wealth and false security.  Satan has them by the hand.  Some time when you are near a bookstore, go in and look at all the books on the occult and fortune telling.  There are so many that think that they can talk to their loved ones through some sort of medium.  But Jesus is telling us in this passage today that you can’t do that.  You cannot come back from heaven or hell and you cannot send messages back.  So if you can’t come back or send a message back, then who is trying to fool us through a medium?  The logical answer is the prince of darkness.  That is his realm so beware of the sorcerer and fortune teller.

I would also like to point out that many skeptics and critics of Jesus that we meet in our everyday life, are really people who have never read the Bible.  They may know a couple of verses but that is about it.  Usually these people aren’t even skeptics.  They just refuse to investigate or scrutinize or ponder very deeply.  They have made up their mind and that is it.  As a dear friend of theirs, you may want to point out this passage to them, Luke 16:19-31.  Jesus showed us that we don’t become believers by seeing miracles.  We become believers by reading the Scripture and following God’s Word.

The riches and lures of this world mean nothing.  It is the treasures we store up in heaven that count.  Joel Pankow tells us that the world’s most successful financiers met in Chicago in 1923.  These tycoons together had more money than was in the US Treasury.  These guys were rich!  Here is a capsule of where they were 27 years later.  Charles Schwab, the steel magnate, lived on borrowed money the last five years of his life and died penniless.  Arthur Cutten, a wheat speculator, died insolvent.  Richard Whitney, the president of the New York Stock Exchange, served time in Sing Sing.  Albert Fall, a member of the president’s cabinet, was pardoned from prison so he could die at home.  Three others had committed suicide.  All these men were like the rich man in our story.  I wonder where they ended up.

That is not where Jesus wants you to be.  He is telling you in this parable that you have to be aware of the consequences of your behavior.  Jesus is telling you that heaven is a fact where you want to be but also hell is a fact.  These places are real.  They are as real as the noses on our faces.  And Jesus is showing you the way because he loves you so much.

You can read of the workings of Jesus through modern miracles in magazines like Guideposts and Angels.  They always have some stories about fantastic modern day miracles.  A while back someone told me about how another person was cured of cancer after the doctors had given them no hope of recovery.  I hear of these things all the time and they are true.  I was in the middle of a miracle when I had my massive heart attack a few weeks ago and our daughter from Switzerland happened to be home and she happened to be a nurse.  God put her there to save me.  You all know of miracles that Jesus has worked in your lives.  He does this not only because He loves you but also that He wants you to know that there are way better things out there than what you can see in your limited world.  Jesus Christ is omnipotent.  He is all powerful and all knowing.  He can do anything and He wants you to know.

But even today, these miracles don’t bring people to Jesus.  People are so embedded with science, that everything has to be proven scientifically.  Satan is leading many to the wrong place through the religion of science.  Things really haven’t changed much in 2000 years.  The way to find Jesus is through the Bible, through prayer, worship and finally through His grace.

I would like to throw out a suggestion to you folks today.  I suggest that you read the Bible from cover to cover during the next year.  There are many versions out there that are an easy read.  There are Bibles that are laid out to read in a year.  Find one that you are comfortable with, and then read it.  Read about all the glorious miracles and other deeds that God has done for you.  Read about this intricate plan that he lays out for you in this wondrous book.  I read the Bible once every year and every year I am amazed at what God has done.  By doing this you will strengthen your knowledge of God and best of all you will strengthen your faith.  You will also see the wondrous ways that He shows His love for you.

Hopefully, you relearned some things today.  You learned a little about your choices for eternity and more about God’s love for you.  John Hamby tells of an army chaplain reporting to a new assignment.  His men asked him if he believed in a literal hell.  The chaplain replied that he did not.  Then the men asked him to resign and he asked why.  The men replied, “If there is no hell then we don’t need you and if there is a hell then we don’t want you to lead us astray.”

Let’s not be led astray by the world around us.  When you are in doubt, then look in the Bible or ask a Christian friend or talk to Jesus.  Jesus left this book for you so that you could use it.  It is His instruction book for you, for all of us.  Jesus wants everyone to be with Him for eternity.  You just need to follow his plan.  And when you do, great things will follow, from now through eternity.  I praise the Lord for the day that I found Jesus because He has always known me.  Thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.