Rich Man and Lazarus

1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 3 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.” 4 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” 6 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.” 7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8 And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes. 9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Revival tie in statement?

Prayer

Introduction

In the ancient world, there was an assumption that if good things were happening to you, then God must be pleased with you, and if bad things were happening, then God was upset with you. Theologians call this idea retribution theology or the retribution principle. We see this type of thinking represented throughout the Bible -not that Scripture teaches it as true, just that people held to this idea. Job’s friends come to mind as they repeatedly proclaimed that Job must have done something wrong to deserve such punishment from God, and of course we know that they were mistaken – that Job was a righteous man. Of course, my sermon is not about Job, but his story is a good example of the type of thinking that is at the core of the parable we will be looking at.

Scripture

With that being said, our passage this morning is the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus found in . If you are able, please stand for the reading of God’s Word. We do this to show appreciation to God for His Word and in recognition that these are the most important words we can hear today because they come from the mouth of God. says,

Luke 16:19–31 ESV

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.’ ”

Thank you, you may be seated.

Sermon

This parable is incredibly fascinating for about a million different reasons; most of which we really will not be able to get into. First, we really need to understand how pervasive retribution theology was. The assumption that almost everyone was working with was that if things were going well for you, that meant God was pleased and you were righteous, but if things were going badly, then God was displeased with you because of your sin. We see this broken theology in where some people assume that certain bad events occurred because of individual sin. In verses 2-5, Jesus corrects their assumption

Luke 13:2–5 ESV

2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

“And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Luke 13:1–5 ESV

1 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Jesus disciples were even infected with this distorted view. says,

John 9:1–4 ESV

1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.

Now the fact that trials and sorrows are used by God to glorify Himself is a sermon in and of itself, but it isn’t this sermon. I just wanted to make sure we understood how deeply retribution theology was woven into the fabric of the culture so that we can make better sense of Jesus’ parable.

Jesus is telling this parable to Pharisees who we are told in verse 14 were lovers of money. The Pharisees had swallowed this retribution theology hook, line and sinker. So, as Jesus is telling His parable to the Pharisees, the first 4 verses of it tell us who the characters are. You have a rich man who is living well- everything is going well for him. And you have a poor man whose companions are the street mongrels. Everyone hearing this story at this point is on the side of the rich man – after all, he’s rich, so he must be righteous. Everyone is thinking of the poor man in disdain. What type of terrible sinner must he be to become so poor? He’s probably lazy or a drunk or on drugs. Do you see how easily retribution theology slips into our hearts and minds?

Even in those first 4 verses, there is an indication that Jesus is about to flip the script, so to speak. Jesus names the poor man. This is the only parable of Jesus where any character is named, and it is the poor man – Lazarus. As a side not, this is not his friend Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead. Lazarus was simply the 3rd most common male name in Israel at the time.

Of all the people whose name we should know, it shouldn’t be this poor, possibly lame beggar whose only consolation in life is that unclean street dogs lick his boils. No, we would want to know the name of the rich man. He’s the one God’s face is shining upon. But we soon find out that is not the case.

I do not want to get lost in the weeds of what is going on with the souls of these men, or where they are or anything like that. This passage in incredibly helpful in thinking through what happens to our souls between the time we die and the final judgment, but let’s not get distracted on that right now. For now, let’s just deal with what we see in this parable. Each man is in the realm of the dead. Lazarus is in comfort and peace while the rich man is in torment.

This reversal of fortunes would have been shocking to Jesus’ hearers. Again, wasn’t God pleased with the rich man? Didn’t his riches prove that? And the poor man – clearly God had been punishing him, why is he now with the righteous at Abraham’s side?

The conversation between the rich man and Abraham explains why. “Father Abraham” send Lazarus to serve me.” The rich man is appealing to his status of being a child of Abraham, there is no repentance here. He’s assuming that he can order Lazarus around. That Lazarus should serve him. Abraham responds by reminding the rich man that he had received his good things while Lazarus received bad things.

There is something I want to make sure we catch here. The bad things Lazarus received were just that, things he received, but the good things of the rich man were owned by him. You received your good things. The rich man loved his money. It was his. He feasted extravagantly daily. He dressed in fine clothes even his underwear was fancy. We should just call him “mister fancy pants”. One commentator made this point like this,

“In life the rich man had had his good things. The adjective your is significant. He had had what he chose. He could have spent time with the things of God and delighted in the word of God. He could have engaged in almsgiving (Lazarus had been close enough!). For him good things had been purple and fine linen, daily merriment and feasting. He had chosen what he wanted and now he must abide by his choice.”

He did nothing to alleviate the desperate conditions of the poor. The rich man loved his wealth more than he loved God or His Word. This becomes clearer as the conversation progresses. “Send Lazarus to warn my brothers!” The rich man is still not taking blame for his eternal state. He blames the Word of God as being insufficient. Something more must be done than just God’s Word. He is basically saying, “If only there had been a real warning. If only God had warned me!” The problem isn’t lack of knowledge or information for the brothers or for the rich man. The problem is affection. If the brothers will not listen to God now, they won’t if even a dead man came to life.

If the rich man had rightly understood the purpose of his riches – of his life is to glorify God, he would’ve used his money differently. In this same chapter, in verse 13, Jesus said, “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.”

This parable uses money to illustrate a point, but it is not primarily about finances and money. It is about affections and honoring God in whatever your circumstances are. Unfortunately, we tend to fall into the same idea that God lives to serve us by giving us what we want as long as we do what God wants.

Let me read a few quotes to you, and you tell me if they sound more like the Pharisees who Jesus is rebuking with this parable, or if it sounds more like Jesus who rejects the simplistic idea that if you do good, good things happen and if you do bad, bad things happen.

“Keep a good attitude and do the right thing even when it's hard. When you do that you are passing the test. And God promises you your marked moments are on their way.” - Joel Osteen. That isn’t the Gospel. Keep doing good things and good things will happen is not the Gospel. That’s not what happened to Paul and it certainly isn’t what happened to Our Lord Jesus.

I have two quotes from this next person. “Your future is found in your daily routine. Successful people do daily what others do occasionally!” and “Anyone who tells you to deny yourself is from Satan.” Excuse me!? I’m pretty sure it was Jesus who said that if anyone would follow Him he must deny himself and take up his cross. And that is exactly what the rich man needed to be doing – denying himself and his way of life to obey God’s Word. He needed to destroy that daily routine of sin so that his future wouldn’t be eternal torment. That was Paula White, by the way. She is a well-known “prosperity” teacher from Florida who became more famous the last few years when the President named her as his spiritual advisor.

Last one: “Poverty is caused by sin and disobeying the Word of God.” If this is not a clear teaching of retribution theology, I don’t know what is. Look, some poverty can be caused by sin. If you are hungry because you blew your entire paycheck at the races, then we can say that was sin, but there is not always a connection between sin and poverty, otherwise Lazarus and the rich man would have ended up in opposite places like the Pharisees expected. That last quote was from John Hagee, by the way.

I’m not picking on those teachers to be mean. The difficult thing about prosperity teachers is that much of what they say is correct, but a little leaven is dangerous. Or another way to put that, wolves don’t come looking like wolves. They come in sheep’s clothing. Shepherds must call out a wolf when they see them. I also used those names because I figured you had at least heard of them and I wanted to illustrate how common and pervasive these false ideas are.

Because it is so common in our culture, it finds ways to infect our hearts and spread like a virus. Have you ever heard bad news and thought that it wasn’t fair? Why wasn’t it fair? Does God owe you something?

Don’t we all – myself included fall into this sometimes? The church with 500 people must be more faithful. God must be really moving there. How many people were saved at VBS? Why does it matter? Is that an actual indicator of our faithfulness or God’s pleasure with us?

Or when we get a bad diagnosis, we have that fleeting or sometimes lingering thought, “God, I’ve been reading my Bible every day, how could you do this to me?” I could go on and on with examples like this. It infects us and we have to be on guard against it.

We cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve success, or money, or happiness, or prosperity or comfort or anything else and God. What we do with what God gives us in this life follows us into eternity. Do we love God and live accordingly, or is our heart sometimes captured by lesser things? There is nothing greater for our hearts to be captured by than the glories of Christ. But sometimes, because of our own sin, we become bored with Christ and we seek out other things. We try to serve God and our heart idols.

Conclusion

If you are here and you recognize that you have bought into this false idea of retribution. You’ve been comfortable with your spiritual state because of the comfort of your physical state, I want you to know that you should not find comfort there, and you definitely will not find comfort after death. Repent of putting your hope in the wrong places and put your hope in Christ. Repent of giving your love and affection to that which is not worthy of it and turn to Christ. Unless you repent, you will likewise perish.

If you are a believer, but you recognize that you have been trying to serve two masters, I want you to know that it doesn’t work. God is too jealous of your affection. I also want you to know that I do understand the draw of retribution theology. It is easy to think that way when things are going well. But when things aren’t going well, when bad things do happen, it can be the cruelest master and drive you to despair and depression. But here is the glorious truth of Scripture. God uses bad things – like in the case of the blind man in for His glory which is our good. Brothers and sisters, use well what God has given you – for His glory, not for yourself.

We are now about to transition into a time of worship through response. We believe that any time we hear the Word of God, we respond in worship or in rebellion. And we ought to always respond in worship. If you are like me, you have segments of your heart that believe falsely and I need to repent of that during the time – that’s what worship will look like for some. For others, worship will look like being thankful for the good and bad things God has given us to glorify Himself. Whatever your response looks like, I pray that it is worshipful.

I will be on the front row worshipping with you. If you need someone to talk to or pray with, I’d be delighted to do that. The front is always opened if you’d like to pray up here. I will also stick around after the service if you would like to talk afterwards. Let’s pray.

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