The Rich Man and Lazarus

Introduction

From the excellent preaching of Leon Malden. And he said on his last night that if he made a difference in one person’s life, that it was worth his coming. And I told him you made a difference in mine. And there are some changes already that I’ve started to put into place that I can see that I need to improve. And really, isn’t that what the Christian life is, brethren? It’s a life of always improving until the day you die. Always growing in our knowledge and always growing in our strength and our maturity as Christians.

So I think that’s very encouraging. And there were probably more that didn’t end up actually on the board. We really worked. And I think next time we can get even closer to that mark. I believe this was about a hundred more invites than we had the previous attempt. So I want to commend you for the good effort that you made, because inviting is something we can all do, and that’s part of evangelism.

And we read in just a few verses previous to the starting of the story in verse 14, it says, Now the Pharisees who were lovers of money were listening to all these things and were scoffing at him. So he’s going to address this idea of the love of money. And by the way, money is not the root of all evil. As you have heard and know, it is the love of money that is the root of all evil, or as the New American Standard says there in 1 Timothy 6, a root of all kinds of evil. And so Jesus is going to address this idea of loving money, this idea of wealth, and he’s going to deal with poverty. But that is not the primary focus of this story that Jesus tells of the rich man and Lazarus.

The primary focus is eternity. That’s what this story is really about. And it’s about are we really prepared? Are we living for God or are we living for this world? Are we serving God or are we serving mammon? And when that day comes, are we going to be surprised where we end up? Are we going to be right where we planned to be through the grace of God? Are we going to honor and respect the holy word of God by studying it to allow it to warn us for that day of judgment which is to come? That’s what this parable is about. It is moving. It is motivating, and it is sobering.

1. Earthly Circumstances Are No Indicator of Spiritual Condition

Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, 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. One of the first things we notice here is that the rich man is not named, and the poor man is named. His name is Lazarus, which means God a help. It’s a very common name. But the very fact that he is named Lazarus draws attention to that fact. And so we need to note that. God a help. If you had looked at the outward circumstances, it would appear that if God was helping anybody, he was helping the rich man.

But Lazarus was the one that truly God was helping spiritually, and his reward was to come. As we think about the fact that Lazarus is named, it brings to light the fact that some say that this is not a parable, because Jesus never names anybody in his parables. If this is a parable, it is the only time he gives somebody a name. So I can’t say whether it’s a parable or whether it’s not. But either way, the points are still the same, and the truths are still so. So we don’t have to choose one or the other, whether it’s a parable or a real life story of a man named Lazarus. So this rich man habitually dressed in purple. I mean, that was the most expensive kind of dress.

That was the kind of attire that kings wore. Purple and fine linen, so his outer garments and his inner garments. And this wasn’t just on special occasions, you know, I wear suits, but not often. I don’t wear them every day. I don’t have enough to wear them every day. He wore purple and fine linen every single day. You know, it’s the Ralph Lauren, it’s the Gucci of the world, or whatever might be higher or more expensive than that, but it’s every single day everywhere he goes. And he joyously lived in splendor every day. I like how the older versions render it, at least the King James and the American Standard. He fared sumptuously every day. That’s not a phrase we use if somebody says, How are you?

Well, I’m faring sumptuously. You know, that’s not a phrase we’re used to. But I like the ring of it, don’t you? Except for that it was applying here to a wicked man. He fared sumptuously. It was always a feast. It was always a party. It was always seeing what he could use his money for. For his own gratification. And he lived it up. He enjoyed every minute of it. And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate. God, a help, was laid at his gate. Oh, the rich man could see him every day. The servants in and out could see him as they went by the gate. Did they help him? Apparently not. Oh, he was starving. And he had just been kind of thrown at the gate.

Laid is a nice translation. Throne would be more like it. And here he is covered with sores from, you know, just all over his body. I just think of Job, from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot. He was in pain. And he was alone. And he was hungry. And oh, he just saw this rich man feasting and the food falling from the table. Just the crumbs, that’s the trash. That’s the stuff we’re going to throw out, and all he could hope for is that, oh, I can’t wait till that stuff is gathered up and thrown over this gate or thrown over the side somewhere, so maybe I can get to it before the dogs do and get me a few bites to eat.

That’s how desperate his situation was. And who were his companions? Just the wild dogs. In fact, they’re the ones who provided him with most comfort by licking his sores. It’s a pretty sad state, isn’t it? Pretty sad situation that we have here of Lazarus. I want to make a point that we can see in these two verses. Earthly circumstances are no indicator of one’s spiritual condition. We have two very different earthly situations here. It couldn’t be any more polar opposite than the rich man and Lazarus. And one thing we need to realize is that good circumstances are no indication of righteousness. We might look at somebody that has a lot of blessings or a lot of wealth. Things are just going great for them in their work and in their personal life, and we think God must be happy with them.

He’s really blessed that person. That’s not necessarily the case.

But she is one. And a well known one. And she was asked about all this, and she said, I know that God is pleased with me in my ministry because I make so much money and we’re so successful. That is faulty reasoning. Just because a person is successful doesn’t mean that God is on their side. God sends the rain on the just and the unjust. The other flip of the other side of the coin is that bad circumstances are no indication of wickedness. It’s easy to look at somebody, somebody who’s destitute, somebody who has terrible situations in life, and to think that person must have deserved that. He must have done something bad. He must be scum one way or the other. That is not always the case.

Now it can be the case that sin can bring that upon a person. But look at Job. And was that the case with Job and his three friends said, You must have deserved this for some great wickedness you have done. And he said, No, I didn’t do some great wickedness that brought this upon me. And he argued that especially in Job chapter 21. So bad circumstances are no indication of wickedness. And when you look at the spiritual reality of what was going on with the rich man and Lazarus, it couldn’t be more ironic. Because spiritually speaking, Lazarus was filthy rich. Fabulously wealthy. And the rich man was as poor and destitute as can be imagined, spiritually speaking. Brethren, isn’t that an encouraging thought? That though there may be some in here, and I know there’s a great range of financial circumstance in this congregation.

There may be some in here that are closer to the beggar than you are to the rich man. But if you are serving Christ, you need to realize that you are spiritually wealthy. Paul said in Ephesians 3 and verse 8, he mentioned the unfathomable riches of Christ. That’s what you have in store. It’s a wonderful thing. But on the other side, on the other hand, some of us might be more like the rich man. Hopefully, you’re not spiritually like the rich man. But don’t we have a lot in this world? I mean, do we have crumbs that fall from our table? And what do we do with them? Do we scoop them up and eat them? No, they fell on the floor. They go in the trash.

Remember when you were a kid and your mom told you, eat all that food because there are starving kids in Africa that would eat that stuff? Do we not have an excess as a general rule here in America? Are we as a whole more like the rich man in physical circumstance than we are Lazarus? You’ve maybe heard me say before that a lot of our problems that we complain about are rich people problems. Oh, my car. Well, you know what? A lot of people in the world don’t have a car to complain about in the first place. That’s a rich people problem. And so we need to keep things in perspective and make sure that we are putting first things first and that we are not serving mammon.

2. Two Eternal Abodes

As we continue to read, we see that there are two eternal abodes. In verse 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. You notice that a burial is mentioned for the rich man, but not the poor man. It just says the poor man died and was carried away by the angels. You think about the death of this man Lazarus. His body, maybe just left out there to the elements, maybe to be devoured by the wild dogs that were licking his sores. There were no mourners. There was no celebration of any sort. There was no ceremony. But there were angels.

And our kids, don’t want to leave anybody out. Lived in Dade City. We lived right next door to two of the members of the church that became some of our closest friends. And it was unlikely pairing because we’re nowhere near the right age. One of them is old enough to be our parent, and the other one old enough to be our grandparents. Well, anyway, Jimmy Johnson, he got brain cancer while we were living there. We lived there for two years. Actually, he had it, but he found out he had it. And it was already stage four. And you just don’t get over that. You don’t beat stage four brain cancer as a rule. And so he knew that his time was coming. And he has since passed.

But when we were there, he would talk about he was looking forward to death. And he talked about the angels carrying away his soul. That thought fascinated him. One of the reasons that the rich man and Lazarus story is so fascinating is because it gives us an insight into what’s behind the veil. We don’t have a whole lot of insight into what’s behind the veil, details of what’s going to be on the other side. We have some general things, but this is very specific. The angels carried his soul to Abraham’s bosom. Now that’s powerful. When a person dies who is in the Lord, on the surface, nothing extraordinary is going on. It’s just a hospital room in a hospital bed. But behind the scenes, when that person dies on the other side of that veil, there is something far beyond what we can fathom.

Angels bearing up the soul. Leon Malden said when he was here, we are not bodies with a soul. We are souls with a body. And once this body is discarded, then our soul, which will live for all eternity, will be taken by angels if we die in the Lord. He was taken by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. That’s not a place. Abraham’s bosom is not a place. Bob Waldron, who’s one of my mentors, mentioned that when he was younger, he used to think of, you know, Abraham’s bosom was like this big area, and this is like Abraham laying down on his back, and this is his chest. And that’s where everybody goes, you know, when you’re saved and you go to heaven and everything, you’re going to that big bosom of Abraham.

No, it means the embrace of Abraham. Isn’t that beautiful? Talk more about that in a moment. So the poor man doesn’t have a burial. But the rich man also died and was buried. And don’t you know it would have been a rich man’s burial? There would have been mourners. There would have been dozens in attendance. There would have been great pomp and great ceremony. But no angels. Demons, perhaps. I’m not sure how that’s going to work. But the angels didn’t transport his soul. Because he closed his eyes, and death and he raised his eyes in torments. So Lazarus in Abraham’s embrace in paradise. I want to focus on that for a minute. You think of Lazarus. Here’s this man that during his life was at the lowest of possible lows.

Just covered with sores in complete pain all the time. He had no more pain. He had no more loneliness. Now the dogs weren’t his companions. The father of faith, the father of the Jews. Abraham was his companion, and he was being comforted there. A beautiful thought. He was no longer poor. Now he was magnificently rich. You know, one of the best things about heaven is that there will be nothing bad there. One of the best things about heaven is that there will be nothing bad there. Take away all the bad stuff of this life, and it’d be pretty tolerable, wouldn’t it? Nothing bad in heaven. Wonderful thought. And we need to think about eternity. We need to think about paradise. We need to think about our reward.

Because we get stuck in the moment. We feel sometimes like Lazarus. Do you sometimes feel that your lot in life is tough? That other people seem to have more blessings than you, and you’re always sort of reaching to want more and to have better all the time. And you just kind of, like my dad said, you just grin and bear it. Just get through it. And that’s how we sometimes feel in life. But sometimes we get stuck in the present. But, brethren, if there’s hope in the future, there’s power in the present. And what we have to have is hope for what will happen after this life is over. When our spiritual riches, those unfathomable riches of Christ are finally completely at our disposal. Don’t get stuck in the here and now.

Verse 23, switching back to the rich man. In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom. A terrifying thought to close your eyes in death. And to not think you’re going to hell. But then to raise your eyes and to find yourself in a place of torment and flames. That doesn’t make me happy to preach. I don’t like to say it. I don’t like that it is so. But if the scriptures say it, I’m going to preach it, and I’m going to believe it. And we all need to believe it. Oh, what a scary thought. What a scary thought. To realize one second after death, it’s too late to do anything about your eternal destiny.

Yet all those years. We’ll talk more about that too. Hades is transliteration of the Greek word Hades. Hades. And Hades means the unseen. It I think could be understood as the realm of the dead. And so it doesn’t always refer to torments. We have, for example, in Acts 2 and verse 31, when Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost and talks about that the soul of Jesus was not left in Hades. In other words, he died on the cross and he went to Hades. Well, where did he go? The King James renders it hell. He didn’t go to hell. He would have gone to paradise. But he went to Hades. He went to the realm of the dead. So the context has to determine, if I understand this correctly, whether Hades is talking about paradise or torments in that particular context.

3. The Time of Mercy Will Come to an End

So I think Hades is a good translation. So the rich man, in the place of torment. You know, heaven and hell are real. And they’re not called heaven and hell here. They’re called Hades and place of torment. And being in Abraham’s bosom. Whatever you want to call it, okay? It’s real. And all of us will end up in one of two places. There’s no in-between. There’s no place for people that were halfway good and halfway bad. In fact, hell will be populated with a lot of people who are very nice people and very good people. But being good won’t make it. Being good won’t get you to heaven. And we need to make sure our souls are ready. Now, the third point we’re going to move on to see is that the time of mercy will come to an end.

Verse 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. Father Abraham. Abraham might have been his physical father that he was descended from, but was not his spiritual father. The Pharisees also claimed that Abraham was their father, and Jesus told them in John chapter 8 that the devil is your father. And this rich man was making a little point here. Father. No, he’s not your father. Your father is the devil. That’s why you wound up in the devil’s abode. Have mercy on me. Oh, here’s this man who never needed mercy before. And now he wants the help of the man who lied, who was laying at his gate, begging for mercy.

Lazarus only wanted crumbs. Now the rich man just wants a drop of water. You ever been that thirsty? Of course a drop of water wouldn’t quench it, would it? But you just thought, oh, just one drop. Imagine feeling that way for all eternity. It’s a scary thought. It’s a scary thought. I am in agony in this flame. It’s too late. He wants mercy, but now it’s too late for mercy. You know, there is a time for mercy. But the time of mercy will come to an end. When the hand of God is no longer outstretched, when now all we have is the absence of God, the absence of love, the absence of grace, and the absence of mercy. Total outer darkness, as hell is called in some places.

Verse 25, that 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. 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. Now don’t get lost in this and ask questions that can’t be answered. Well, how can we be truly happy in heaven if we see people over there in hell? You know, I think we need to be careful just how literally we take some of this and apply it to our future situation. Are we going to be able to have conversations with people in hell?

I think we’re missing the point when we start asking questions like that. The point of this is that once we die, our spiritual fate is sealed. One second after death, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You have all of these years. God has given you however many years you can manage to keep your body alive. But then when you’re dead, there is no more chance for repentance. There is no more mercy. All those times that you thought I should have obeyed the gospel, I will do it. I will do it one day. I’ll get my life straight. That’s what I’ll do. I’ll do it when I get a little older. I’ll do it when the kids grow up, and I can get myself together.

We tell ourselves that that, but if death comes in the meantime, the one second after death, and it’s over. Our spiritual fate is sealed. Which would be a wonderful thought if you were saved. To think, now I’m in heaven, and I’ll always be here. There is nothing that’s going to happen that will ever tear me away from heaven. But to be lost. That is a chilling thought to think I’ll never get out of this place. The time of mercy is now. Now is the time when God has his hand outstretched to you. Now is the time when you have the blessings of the Bible with you on a daily basis. You have the blessings of this congregation and coming to church. You have the opportunity to repent and be baptized for forgiveness of your sins and to give your life fully to the Lord in faith to be saved by his grace.

4. The Scriptures Are Adequate for Faith

You have that now. So take the opportunity now. Because death could happen at any point, and the Lord could come back. As we move along, we’re going to see that the scriptures are adequate for faith. That is our fourth and final point. Verse 27, and he said, Then I beg you, Father, that you send into my Father’s house, for I have five brothers, in order that he may warn them so that they will not also come to this place of torment. I just want to make a couple of points about this before we get to our real main point. All of a sudden, the rich man was an evangelist. Why wasn’t he an evangelist while he was alive? Why didn’t he care about warning his brothers while he was alive, much less taking warning for himself.

If we could just experience the place of torment for one second and come back, all of a sudden we might be motivated to do what that preacher said and to get on the ball with evangelism. To warn our family.

Well, I wish you had too. But it’s too late. There are times in life where we just have to admit, you know what? It’s too late. It’s impossible to recorrect the things that I messed up there. I can only repent and move forward. But in the day of judgment, in the day of our death, or in the day that the Lord comes back. That will be a terrifying thought to think, I can’t do anything about my family. Oh, I want to. I don’t want them to come here. I want to save them now. I’ll do anything. And apparently, this rich man was a person of influence because now in the afterlife he’s still trying to boss people around.

He’s trying to tell Abraham, send that beggar. I remember him. He’ll do what you say. Send him to my father’s house. So that they will not also come to this place of torment. But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. Moses and the prophets refers to the Old Testament. Jesus was still under the Old Testament until he died. That’s when the New Testament came. That’s when the church began. But the point here is they have the scriptures. Let them listen to the scriptures. We all have God’s word. You know, I mentioned in class this morning that I heard one time that the most remote tribal people that live in the deepest, darkest jungles of the world have two things Coca-Cola and a Bible.

I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I heard it one time. And it makes a good point. We all have a Bible. We all have adequate warning so that we can turn our lives to the Lord. They have the written word. Listen to Moses and the prophets. Well, they were dead for a long time. How do you listen to Moses and the prophets? When you read what they wrote, it is just potent, as potent and powerful as the day that it was written, that a day was revealed through the Holy Spirit by the mouths of those men. And when we read the words of Jesus and when we read the words of the apostles, it has just the same power as it had 2,000 years ago as if we were standing at the feet of Jesus and listening to him teach or sitting there listening to the apostles preach.

And we need to see that when we go to study the word of God, it has power to change our lives, and we need to take heed to its warnings. But he said, No, Father Abraham. But if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. 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.

Look, I’ve got a better plan than God’s plan. He has a plan that the word is what you need. But I’ve got a better plan. You need a resurrection, you need some miracles going on here. You need something a bit more compelling than just words on a page. Does that have a contemporary ring to it? If scriptures do not convince, neither will any kind of a miracle, even a resurrection. Some people say, Well, I don’t know if I believe in the Bible. If I saw some kind of miracle, now I asked two atheists this question. What would it take to make you believe. Because they were so unreasonable. Everything I offered them, oh, that’s no, no, not that, not that. Alright, so what would it take?

Why am I wasting my time here? Well, one of them said, here’s what it would take. I would have to see if there was some wicked person over there, a divine foot come out of heaven and smash him. And I think he was insulting me and being sarcastic. And the other person said, I would have to see God right in front of me, and I would have to know that it was God and not a hallucination. That is the only thing that would make me believe. You know what that’s called? Unreasonable. That’s a nice word. That’s unreasonable. You see, people who say, I would believe if I only had a miracle. Those people wouldn’t believe even if they had a miracle. And if you are one of those people and you have a hard time believing the things that you read here, you wouldn’t believe even if you had a miracle.

Because your heart is not right. And the evidences and proofs that are just within the word of God are so powerful and moving that this could not have been written by anything other than the Holy Spirit. Amen? You maybe heard me say, I say that a lot, don’t I? I’ve only been here six months. What’s the best way to know if you have a good watermelon? Ah, you can thump it. You can turn it over and look at the bottom, look at its color. I don’t know, maybe you have some other things you might like to try, but ultimately, how do you know if you got a good watermelon? You got to cut it. And ultimately, the way we know if this is God’s word is we cut it and we read it, and it’s internal evidences are the most powerful that can be.

And they are enough to convince a rational thinking person who is not prejudiced against it. Somebody who has an open heart and an open mind. God has made it such. I believe it. And I’ll tell you this. If we don’t listen to the Bible, we will listen to nothing. And if the Bible doesn’t change us, nothing will. So how about you and me? Are we going to be changed by the written word of God that is adequate for faith and for life? Hell is one’s self. Hell is alone. Hell is the agony of being unable to love or be loved. Hell is the realization of one’s need for others, but a need that can never be met, and which leaves us only with the regret of lost opportunity.

Conclusion

T.S. Elliot. You don’t want to go there. Because that’s a worse pain than any fire can bring. The emotional pain, the loneliness, the lost opportunity, the fact that you can never change your situation or improve it at all. I don’t want that for anyone. And as we stand here in this world that is just mixed with various beliefs, various religions, where we just accept anything and everything, Jesus gives us a clear and direct path. And he says, this is the way to heaven. And if you don’t follow it, hell is what you will get. Jesus, who showed more love, who was the kindest man who ever lived. He took a stand when everybody else would dance. He walked when everybody else stood still. He took a stand for eternity.

And he said, not what people wanted to hear, but what people needed to hear. And that’s because he is such a man of love. And if we will imitate Jesus, then we will stand up and take an unpopular message to this postmodern world. And we will believe it and we will proclaim it with love and gentleness and compassion. But if the Bible says that we believe it, and if the Bible says there is a hell or a place of torment, and if the Bible says that there is a paradise or a heaven, then we are going to believe that. We’re going to commit our lives to going there. Where are you going? If you were to die right now, one second after death, your eternal fate is sealed.

Are you going to heaven? Are you going to heaven? Or are you going to hell? If you doubt whether you’re going to heaven, do something to change it. You can come to the Lord Jesus if you’ve never been baptized. Repenting of your sins, confessing his name, you can be buried in water and rise to walk in newness of life. If you’re already a baptized believer, you can recommit yourself. You can come and ask for the prayers of the church, and we’ll do everything we can to help you and to strengthen you in your walk of faith. If we can assist you at this time, please stand as we sing the song of invitation. I am no longer to be good.