Sermon Tone Analysis
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Illustration: Discount Tire; Casey Crawford
The life we choose to live, is serious business.
The choices that we make not only affect us for all of eternity; but they also affect those in our lives.
Most people, certainly most people in the Western world who've had any exposure to Christianity whatsoever, think they're going to Heaven; and that is largely affirmed by clergymen and religious leaders.
· 83% of Americans claim to be Christian;
Certainly, these people all think they're headed for Heaven.
I'm quite sure that hell is populated mostly with people who are shocked to find themselves there.
People typically answer the question, "Are you going to Heaven?" with, "Well, I'm a good person.
I'm a religious person.
I believe in God.
I believe in Jesus.
I'm going to Heaven.
God certainly wouldn't send me to hell."
The Rich Man and Lazarus
19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.
20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table.
Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side.
The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.
24 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.’
25 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.
26 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.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’
29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’
30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
31 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.’
”
Hell is full of religious people.
Notice with me that it is the Pharisee’s who have Jesus’ attention at this point; look at verse 14
“The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.”
The Pharisee’s and their followers are in grave danger of being thrown into the flames of Hell.
Their religion was fraudulent.
Look at who they are according to scriptures:
· v.14 They are “Lovers of Money”
· v.15 They “Justified Themselves” Their salvation was worked based.
Self justification that works with men, but it detestable in the sight of God.
Because of this truth Jesus tells a story in an attempt to grab their attention.
They like the man in the story are rich, they like the man in the story demand signs.
Think of the contrast and reversal’s of this story:
· There’s a poor man and a rich man- The poor man becomes rich and the rich man becomes horribly poor.
· There’s a poor man on the outside and a rich man on the inside- Then there is a poor man on the inside and a rich man on the outside.
· There is a poor man without food and a rich man with an abundance of food- then there is a poor man that has a feast and a rich man that can’t even find a drop of water.
· There’s a poor man who has immense needs and a rich man who has no needs- then there’s a poor man who has no needs and a rich man who has great needs.
· There’s a poor man who desires everything because he has nothing, and there’s a rich man who desires nothing because he has everything.
– Then there’s a poor man who desires nothing and a rich man who desires everything.
· There’s a poor man licked by dogs and a rich man surrounded by dignitaries,- then there is a poor man surrounded by dignitaries and a rich man isolated among the worst of the dogs.
· There’s poor man who suffers and a rich man who is satisfied, - then there is a rich man who suffers and a poor man who is satisfied.
· There’s a poor man humiliated and a rich man honored, then there is a rich man humiliated and a poor man honored.
· There’s a poor man who seeks help and a rich man who gives none, - then there’s a rich man who seeks help and a poor man who can’t give any.
· There’s a poor man who’s a nobody and a rich man who’s a somebody,- then there’s a poor man who’s a somebody and a rich man who’s a nobody.
· A Poor man with no dignity in life becomes dignified in death, a rich man with dignity in life becomes an absolute no one in death.
· A poor man with no hope, and a rich man with all hope,- then a poor man whose hope is realized though he had none and a rich man who had all hope and now has none.
It goes on and on, but you get the picture.
In the story Lazarus never speaks he is simply there for contrast.
The story is about the Rich man and his experience in hell.
The rich man gives a personal testimony of what it is like in Hell, the only time we ever get this type of personal testimony.
We do have an actual testimony in of what it’s like in Heaven, the apostle Paul simply says, ‘I don’t know what to say.”
There are simply no words.
Is this story a parable?
Maybe, Maybe not…
Much of the style of the story is that of a parable.
However it is uncustomary for a parable to use an actual ‘name’ of an individual.
It never comes out and says it is a parable; however most do believe that this is not an actual account but only a story designed to teach a lesson.
I do think it is a possibility in the sovereign knowledge of Jesus that is could be an actual experience, none the less the point remains the same and teaches us a great deal both about life and the afterlife.
The story breaks into 3 Parts= Life- Death- Life after Death.
1. LIFE
THE RICH MAN
19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.
The regular habit of this man was to dress to the max; his regular custom was to put himself on display.
Notice his appearance is a major emphasis of his life; he is obsessed with the way he is perceived by others.
Living in splendor every single day, whatever it was he wanted that day he had the resources to make sure he received it.
Luxurious, Lavish- remember the Pharisee’s are listening to this and they are saying: ‘blessed, blessed, blessed is this man.”
They are the inventors of the “Prosperity Gospel,” If you are rich God blessed you to be rich, and if you are poor God cursed you.
This is the simple theology that they maintained.
If anything went wrong in your life then you sinned; “Who sinned that this man is blind.”
Remember v. 14 said they are lovers of money.
They were good at parading themselves in the luxurious lifestyles.
THE POOR MAN
20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
This is also an extreme case; poor in the Greek is Tokos means he had nothing referring to extreme poverty.
Elcomi- English ulcer comes- oozing lesions all over his body.
We would say that he is gross, and unclean.
He also had some crippling disability; he was laid at the gate of the rich man.
Balo- Greek word for thrown or dumped- he is a beggar dumped at the Rich man’s gate; by whom we do not know; someone who had enough compassion to take him out to the large gate at the entrance to this man’s estate and dump him there.
The rich man is like the Pharisee’s consumed with unrighteous wealth, loving money, serving money and not God; therefore detestable to God.
The rich man gives the poor man no help, does he know about him?
Of course he knows about him he is at his gate.
He sees him every time he goes out and every time he comes in.
He has been dumped there he cannot move.
Does he know that the man has needs?
Of course he does, he can see by the man’s body how many needs he actually has but he does nothing to meet those needs.
21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table.
Guests at a meal used the broken pieces of the bread to clean their hands, and then throw them under the table to be eaten by the dogs.
Dogs would hang around the meals in a home.
So picture it the dogs would be fed under the table, all the while there’s a poor, crippled, starving man outside the gate; that must sting a little bit for many of us- our ‘pets’ are provided for many times better than the poor in our community.
Pharisee’s would understand this because they wouldn’t want to help someone that was being cursed by God, they would want to keep their distance from this man.
After all they believed God is the one who cursed the man; therefore they will not get in the way.
So the man is left not even to eat the dirty bread that eats under the table, to make it worse the dogs are coming to lick the man’s open oozing sores.
In this day a dog was not a pet, the worst thing you could call someone in this day was a ‘dog.’
“A mongrel that roams the outskirts of town in search of garbage, they have not come to lick the wounds but to eat at his wounds which would make us regard him even less as human, an outcast cursed by God.”
The poor man is an insulting humiliation who is road kill to the rich man.
Just because we are children of God; it does not promise a life of ease- Biblically speaking a follower of Jesus always will encounter various types of persecution.
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