*Below is Pastor Andrew’s teaching outline from Sunday’s sermon, not a word for word manuscript. This is meant as aid in seeing the thought and direction of the sermon.

YOLO

Context:

Luke 15:1–2 ESV

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

 

Luke 16:14 ESV

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.

 

The Nature of a Parable:

Luke 8:10 ESV

he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’

Stories told to relay the truth of God in ways that are not obvious to all but filled with spiritual significance to those who hear and see the truth.

 

They are usually seen either by the text saying they are parables or by the use of a common Phrase: “There was a man”

Similar to how we tell stories:

A Long long time ago in a galaxy far far away…

There once lived a princess….

or of course:

Opening line from The Hobbit:

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a  nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy  smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on  or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.” -Tolkien “The Hobbit”

Jesus uses stories often because they pique our imagination and help us to understand some deep spiritual truths in prevalent ways, While at the same time forcing us to dig deep into what he is trying to teach us,

And this is no different as we turn to the text before us:

 

I. Two Lives (19-21)

Luke 16:19–21 ESV

“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.

1. A Certain Rich man

-Unnamed (though some manuscripts assign him the name Dives meaning “Rich”)

-Clothed in Purple (the most costly of clothing)

-Held great feasts in never want of food

He was the top of the top when it came to society the pinnacle of all that people would want to achieve, he had a great home with a gate

1. A Poor Man

-Jesus names him Lazarus Meaning (He Whom God helps)

-Only man given a name in any parable of Jesus

-Meant to highlight the character of this poor man who had no help on this earth but from God

- Was starving for but scraps of food

- Was covered with soars rather than clothes

-The dogs licking his soars as a source of their substance.

-He was the lowest of beggars And not even looked upon by the rich man

 

Jesus Here again is speaking to the Pharisees and the disciples

 

II. Two Deaths (22-23)

Luke 16:22–23 ESV

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 his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.

1. The Poor Man

-Ushered by Angels into glory

-Think Enoch or Elijah (Jesus is painting the picture of a great entry into the life to come)

-He resides next to Abraham in comfort

1. The Rich man

-Is Buried like anyone else

-Experiences the torments of Hades

The rich man’s death highlights what Jesus said just before this parable:

Luke 16:15 ESV

And he said to them, “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.

 

III. Two Requests & Responses (24-31)

Luke 16:24–31 ESV

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 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.’ 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.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”

 

A. The rich man seeks mercy for himself

-Asks for Lazarus to come and provide the comfort of a drop of water to quench his thirst.

-Highlights the fact he still doesn’t view Lazarus rightly

-Even in death he sees Lazarus as but a servant

-Meant to highlight the rich man’s selfishness

 

Abraham responds:

-The rich man and Lazarus have switched places.

-The first has become last and the last first

-The rich man received his comfort and peace in life and squandered it.

-There is also no way to go from one place of death to the other

-The world of death is separated

-There is a heaven and a hell and the two shall not meet

-Highlights the use of the first life is of eternal significance for the one to come.

-Point of fact In this Parable Jesus uses the pharisees own view on the afterlife to describe what is happening.

-This doesn’t mean this is exactly what the afterlife is like

-The Jews believed in death the righteous would go to their true Father Abraham and the wicked would receive the just punishment for their deeds and spend eternity separated from heaven, yet able to see it and suffer all the more in seeing.

4 Maccabees 13:17 NRSV

For if we so die, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will welcome us, and all the fathers will praise us.”

2 Esdras 8:59 NRSV

For just as the things that I have predicted await you, so the thirst and torment that are prepared await them. For the Most High did not intend that anyone should be destroyed;

2 Esdras 7:85–93 NRSV

The fifth way, they shall see how the habitations of the others are guarded by angels in profound quiet. The sixth way, they shall see how some of them will cross over into torments. The seventh way, which is worse than all the ways that have been mentioned, because they shall utterly waste away in confusion and be consumed with shame, and shall wither with fear at seeing the glory of the Most High in whose presence they sinned while they were alive, and in whose presence they are to be judged in the last times. “Now this is the order of those who have kept the ways of the Most High, when they shall be separated from their mortal body. During the time that they lived in it, they laboriously served the Most High, and withstood danger every hour so that they might keep the law of the Lawgiver perfectly. Therefore this is the teaching concerning them: First of all, they shall see with great joy the glory of him who receives them, for they shall have rest in seven orders. The first order, because they have striven with great effort to overcome the evil thought that was formed with them, so that it might not lead them astray from life into death. The second order is because they see the perplexity in which the souls of the ungodly wander and the punishment that awaits them.

 

B. Rich Man seeks mercy for His family

-Asks again that Lazarus be sent (Now back to earth to warn his father’s house)

-5 brothers who by the nature of the request aren’t much different from himself

-It takes suffering on his part to not wish it for others (though here just his own family)

-Abraham tells him explicitly they already have all they need for repentance

-But the rich man knows they don’t care what the scriptures say

-& if they don’t care what the scripture says they won’t care what the living dead say either.

 

 

Applications of the Parable:

 

1. The Word of the Lord is all that is necessary to lead us to a saving knowledge of Christ

-People act as if they had been there to see the miracles then they would believe, but the reality is they wouldn’t. If we don’t listen to him speak through His Word what makes you think you would believe his actions?

-This is a striking conclusion being that it is being told to the Pharisees. They know the law of God and yet here they are face to face with Him and they can’t see it, they will kill him and reject his resurrection.  It isn’t the knowledge that saves, it is what is done with it.

 

2. The Lord is with his own regardless of their circumstances

-Lazarus’ life on earth was rough, but the glory given to him by his God the only one who could seek for everlasting help was great.

-Lazarus had the long game in view

3. Believers who are gifted with wealth and knowledge are called to share that for the good of God’s kingdom.

-This parable ties in with the one before

Luke 16:10–13 ESV

“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

The wealth of this world is meant to be used to make much of God, not ourselves

To be a help to others

To be a light in the darkness pointing people to the hope of Christ.