The Sermon Notes of Harold Buls On the Gospel Lessons of the Ingrian Lutheran Church of Russia Text from Luke 16:19-31 Trinity I 1. This parable is the last in a remarkable sequence of parables in Luke: a. 14:7-24, Jesus speaks three parables to host and fellow- guests to bring them to repentance; b. 14:25-35, Jesus sneaks to the crowds about the necessity of having the proper resources for Christian living; c. 15:1-32, the three parables picturing repentance and conversion; d. 16:1-13, Jesus addresses His disciples on the proper use of Mammon; e. 16:19-31, a parable warning the Pharisees who impenitently disregarded the true message of Moses and the prophets. 2. This parable does not teach that riches and wealth of themselves are evil and lead people to hell. It is the _love_ of money, not money itself which is evil. Nor does this parable say that poverty, misery and woe of themselves lead to everlasting life. Read Lk. 6:20-26. It draws a comparison between the repentant, suffering believer and the arrogant, selfish, impenitent unbeliever. 3. In the vss. preceding our parable, Lk. 16:14-18, we find the wealthy, money-loving Pharisees despising Jesus. Their self-justification was an abomination to God. Furthermore, they treated marriage lightly. They lived in sins against the sixth commandment. The Pharisees refused to listen to Jesus and to repent. 4. In vss. 29 and 31 Jesus makes the point of the parable very clear: "They have Moses and the prophets. Let them (the rich man's brothers) hear them. . . If they don't listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded even if someone would rise from the dead." Jesus once said to His enemies: "If you would believe Moses, you would believe in Me because he wrote about Me. But if you don't believe his writings how will you believe My sayings?" Jn. 5:46-47. The central message of Moses and the Prophets was the Messiah Who was to come. See Jn. 5:39; Acts 10:43; II Tim. 3:15; Lk. 24:27. The Pharisees refused to believe this. They remained impenitent and hateful toward Jesus. They claimed Abraham as father. Jn. 8:39. But Jesus told them that the devil was their father. Jn. 8:44. 5. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. The parable at Lk. 16:19-31 pictures the spiritual difference between believers and unbelievers in this life and in the life to come. Like Lazarus in this life, believers in Jesus are beggars. They confess that they cannot save themselves. Very often they are despised by the rich and famous. They suffer for Jesus' sake. On the other hand, the unbelievers who live only for this life spend their money on themselves and have no time to do good to others. In the life to come we find the opposite. The unbelievers are punished eternally because they would not listen to the Lord. Even in hell they still have not learned their lesson. But the believers are comforted forever. They lie in the bosom of the father of believers, Abraham. Rom. 4:11-12. Read Lk. 6:20-26 again. The poor are the repentant, believing sinners. The rich are the impenitent, unbelieving sinners. Jesus is calling us to repent of our sins and to believe in Him Who took the sins of the world away. 6. Vs. 20 of our text is the only instance in the parables of Jesus in which a name is given to someone. "Lazarus" means "he whom God helps." Lk. 10:20 tells us that We should rejoice because our names are written in heaven. Perhaps that is why Jesus gives Lazarus his name in our text. 7. This parable does not teach that riches damn and poverty saves, nor does it teach that peoples' bodies go immediately to heaven or hell nor does it teach that people in heaven and hell talk to each other. It simply describes the difference between believers and unbelievers in this life and in the life to come. Read Lk. 6:20-26 once more. 8. Mt. 6:2 and 5 tell us Jesus said: "Truly I tell you, they have their reward." In this life God rewards the unbelievers but it ends with death. Read Jn. 11:45-54. The raising of the historical Lazarus only deepened and hardened the unbelief of unbelievers. Cf. vs. 31. The Sermon Outline of Harold Buls On the Gospel Lessons of the Ingrian Lutheran Church of Russia Text from Luke 16:19-31 Trinity I THEME: The Roles Reversed INTRODUCTION Vs. 25 of our text reads: "And Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your life you received your good things and Lazarus likewise received evil things. But now he is comforted here and you are tormented.'" The roles of believers and unbelievers will be reversed in the life to come. We must take care to see what this does NOT mean and what it DOES mean. I. WHAT THIS DOES NOT MEAN A. _It does not mean that wealth damns._ In the OT Abraham and Job, David and Solomon, were wealthy. It did not damn them. In the NT Joseph of Arimathea was wealthy. He was a Christian. It's the _love_ of money (l Tim. 6:9-10) which leads people to damnation. Their love for money is a sign of their unbelief. Lk. 6:24-26 condemns the wealthy who live only to themselves and have no money to spend on the needy. In our text the rich man dressed beautifully, had a good time, and did not help Lazarus who lay at his door. This shows his lack of godliness, his lack of faith in Jesus, his lack of repentance. The wealthy Christians of the OT and NT confessed their sins and believed in the Redeemer. B. _It does not mean that poverty saves._ Read Lk. 6:20-22. It does not say that the poor are saved because they are poor. Our text does not say that Lazarus was saved because he was poor. Mt. 5:3-11 is a good commentary on this. Jesus is speaking about the poor _in spirit_, the spiritually poor, not the physically poor. In our text the rich man is the main character. From Lk. 16:14-18 we know that Jesus spoke this parable to the Pharisees who are pictured in the rich man of our text. Lazarus is a foil to the rich man. The Pharisees were loveless. They did not care about the poor. In our text Lazarus shows how the loveless Pharisees treated the poor. The Pharisees had no good works. II. WHAT THIS DOES MEAN A. _It does mean that people like the rich man will suffer in hell._ Read vss. 14-l8 again. There the Pharisees are described. They were lovers of money. They despised the Word of Jesus. They justified themselves before men. That means that they called their evil works good. But they were an abomination in God's sight. They despised the Law of God which forbids a man to divorce his wife for an unscriptural reason In other words they were dead in their trespasses and sins. They were self-deceived unbelievers. Read vss. 29-31 of our text. The Pharisees refused to listen to Moses and the Prophets, the Word of God. The Word of God tells us to repent of our sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Pharisees refused to do this. Jesus was telling them that their good life was leading them to hell. B. _It does mean that people like Lazarus will be saved._ Very little is said about Lazarus in this life. He was a beggar. He was always hungry. He had many sores which the dogs licked. He lay at the rich man's door but received not even crumbs from the rich man. Whom does he represent? Read Mt. 5:3-12. He was poor in spirit. He claimed no good works whereby to justify himself in God's sight. But heaven was his. He lived a life of grief but he knew that comfort would be his. He was meek. He hungered for righteousness and knew he would be filled. He was merciful and knew that God would have mercy on him. He was clean in heart and knew that he would see God. He was a peacemaker and knew that he was a child of God. He was persecuted but rejoiced because his reward in heaven was great. CONCLUSION The roles of the rich man and poor Lazarus were reversed in the life to come. The unbeliever was damned. The believer was saved. Parables must always be interpreted according to the rest of the Bible. Let us confess our sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. ______________________________________________________________ This text was converted to ascii format for Project Wittenberg by Cindy Beesley and is in the public domain by permission of Dr. Buls. You may freely distribute, copy or print this text. Please direct any comments or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith Walther Library Concordia Theological Seminary E-mail: smithre@mail.ctsfw.edu Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft. Wayne, IN 46825 USA Phone: (219) 452-3149 Fax: (219) 452-2126 ______________________________________________________________ E-mail: smithre@mail.ctsfw.edu Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft. 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