Two Destinations: Heaven-Hell 1
Notes
Transcript
Two Men: Two Destinations
Two Men: Two Destinations
Luke 16:19-25
Today is a sermon that is a little different from my usual style.
Our focus will be on one passage of scripture, like always, but we will refer to many other passages as well.
I would encourage you to at least write down the scripture references so you can check them out when you get home.
Let me know if I am reading or using these scriptures in a way you disagree with.
Some of you will recognize that I have preached a message from this passage several months ago.
Today we begin a series of messages from this passage.
The Series is called Two Destinations: Heaven-Hell
This passage is an important passage where Jesus taught on the afterlife.
Jesus used this story to teach us that this life is not all there is.
It is important for us to remember that people are going to one of 2 possible destinations when we die.
And die we will Hebrews 9:27
27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,
We realize everyone will die but often we do not want to think about that.
I believe that we have become desensitized to the seriousness of death as we read of death and watch death on a regular basis.
As we see an ICE agent kill a woman because of her actions.
As we debate the guilt or innocence of either of these 2 people we become more and more desensitized to death.
As we watch the scene over and over we become more and more desensitized to death.
Death, though, is very much part of living
In agrarian societies such as Jesus lived in everyone knew death was real.
They dealt with not only the visual image of death but the reality of physical death.
We tend to try and sanitize death
We put down animals
We put our pets to sleep
When I was on the farm, we killed animals or they died naturally or they were sold to be killed as income.
When Jesus spoke of death, He did so in relationship to life.
As we look at the 2 men in this story we realize, whether they are real men or if this is a parable, all lives fall into one of these 2 destinations.
With that being said I want to read the entire story for context but will focus only on vv.19-25 this morning.
19 “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. 20 “And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores,
21 and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. 22 “Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.
23 “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 “And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’
25 “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.
26 ‘And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’ 27 “And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house—
28 for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ 29 “But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’
30 “But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ 31 “But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
Pray
Life Description
Life Description
The rich man v. 19
19 “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day.
This man enjoyed the finer things in life.
He seemed to revel in his wealth
Habitually dressing in fine linen and purple.
Daily living in splendor.
Many today, enjoy the finer things in life and there is nothing wrong with being rich but Jesus does warn us...
25 “For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
It does not matter how you understand this verse there is only one way for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
Just like there is only one way for a rich man or a poor man to go to heaven.
It takes and act of God.
So understand that wealth is always a risk for causing us to become idolators
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
It is always tempting to trust wealth rather than God
Trusting wealth is idolatry
It is impossible to trust both God and wealth
This man seemed to be a man who had chosen to worship or serve wealth rather than God.
Life Description
Life Description
The poor man Lazarus v.20-21
20 “And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, 21 and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.
This poor man was laid at the gate.
This implies that he was unable to bring himself to the gate.
Nothing else is mentioned of his ability to get around.
But if he was laid at the gate he might have been lame as well as the other ailments.
He was covered with sores
Perhaps the sores were so painful he was unable to take himself to the gate.
As he was laid at the rich man’s gate
He longed for the crumbs from the rich man’s table.
Either the sores or lameness made this man unable to make a living for himself.
Thus he seemed unable to help himself in anyway.
While dogs licked his sores.
Being poor is not to be disparaged either.
Jesus tells us we will always have the poor with us (Mark 14:7 “For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them; but you do not always have Me.” )
Jesus also said “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” (Luke 6:20 “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” ).
So what we see here are 2 men, one rich, the other poor and diseased.
But there is always a day of reckoning.
Talk about being late and passing those in front of us only to be reckoned by the traffic signal.
Everyone came into the life with nothing.
Everyone will leave this life with nothing.
Death is the great day of reckoning.
Rich and poor, strong and weak, are all equal when death comes.
The deciding factor of our destinations will always be what we believed about Jesus.
Death-Destinations
Death-Destinations
Lazarus
22 “Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.
Lazarus was carried away by angels to Abraham’s bosom.
We assume this is the same place Jesus mentioned while on the cross with the thief that He called paradise.
43 And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
Abraham’s bosom and Paradise seem to be a place like heaven, if it is not heaven, where souls go before the judgement.
This is the place where those who believe in Jesus go.
The place where OT people went who had a believing faith when they died.
Jesus clearly states that Lazarus went to Abraham’s Bosom
He was carried there spiritually by angels.
Obviously not only was the rich man buried but so also Lazarus was buried possibly by the same people who laid him at the rich man’s gate.
The rich man
22 “Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.
He died and was buried.
Not much way to elaborate on there, but the contrast is significant.
Lazarus was carried away by angels
The rich man was buried.
Lazarus had seemingly no one to bury him but the angels are noted to have carried his soul to Abraham’s bosom.
The rich man was buried, perhaps, by his family and friends.
Both men died and having much nor little could change that.
Notice the 2 separate destinations Jesus spoke of in v.23.
23 “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.
In Hades the rich man lifted up his eyes.
He was in torment so probably also agony there in Hades.
The rich man was in Hades
Lazarus was in Abraham’s bosom.
Lazarus was far away from Hades
There is no mention of Lazarus being able to see the rich man only mention was of the rich man seeing Lazarus.
The rich man went to a place of torment and agony
24 “And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’ 25 “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.
The Question we must answer is why these 2 men went to these 2 separate destinations
Was it because Lazarus was poor that he went to heaven?
Was it because the rich man was rich that he went to hades?
Jesus did not give us any insight into why each went to his own separate destination.
He was simply teaching about the destinations.
Therefore we must look at the bible to see why each went to his respective destination.
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
This verse tells me that Lazarus was born again because he is with Abraham in his bosom as the rich man looked on.
If Lazarus was born again then it is fairly obvious that the rich man was not born again.
What do we mean by born again?
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Lazarus had been born of the spirit otherwise he could not have entered the kingdom of God.
This verse is referring to both the physical birth-water
And the Spiritual birth-born again
The rich man, apparently, had not been born of the Spirit but only of water or physical birth.
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
The rich man chose not to believe while Lazarus chose to believe in the only begotten Son of God, Jesus.
It is not about the way we act while on this earth.
It is always about what we believe and that is revealed by how we act.
At some point in life God will approach you and ask you to do something you do not believe you can do.
How you respond at that point tells you and those around you what you believe about God.
If you do what God tells you the world knows you believe God is able to work through you.
If you do not do what God tells you, the world knows you do not believe God can work through you.
That unbelief is sin and it separates us from God.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Sin earns death.
God cannot fill His Heaven with sin filled people.
Therefore hades becomes the home of those who do not believe.
Death is eternal and that is final.
Unless we accept the free gift of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
A gift is available but not forced upon us.
We must accept a gift before it becomes ours.
Eternal life is not forced upon us.
We must consciously accept that gift.
13 for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Accepting the gift of eternal life requires that we call on the Name of the Lord.
We simply have to realize that I can do nothing to overcome this sin on my own.
So often we think we can clean up our mess without God’s help.
But we cannot.
No one can and believers are responsible for delivering that message.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Everyone is going to die
When we die we will spend eternity in one of 2 destinations
Heaven or Hell.
The way we live does not determine where we spend eternity.
What we believe determines where we spend eternity and how we live.
Lots of people live good lives.
But are unwilling to surrender to the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Today is your day to surrender. Please do.
238
Breathe on Me
238
Breathe on Me
Verse 1
Holy Spirit breathe on me
Until my heart is clean
Let sunshine fill its inmost part
With not a cloud between
Chorus
Breathe on me breathe on me
Holy Spirit breathe on me
Take Thou my heart cleanse ev'ry part
Holy Spirit breathe on me
Verse 2
Holy Spirit breathe on me
My stubborn will subdue
Teach me in words of living flame
What Christ would have me do
Verse 3
Holy Spirit breathe on me
Fill me with pow'r divine
Kindle a flame of love and zeal
Within this heart of mine
Verse 4
Holy Spirit breathe on me
Till I am all Thine own
Until my will is lost in Thine
To live for Thee alone
