There is a saying among some Bible commentators when the text reveals something obvious, that the key to understanding the passage is “hanging on the door.”  That simply means that the key is right there in the text, metaphorically on the outside of the door.  In a lot of the parables that Jesus gave the meaning was obscure, and often the disciples had to ask Him privately what they meant.  But in this case Luke presents the purpose of the illustration right at the beginning, hanging on the door.

The key to understanding this parable then is right there in vs. 1. However, even though the text says that Jesus taught this parable “to show that at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart” there is still some confusion among some people as to the principle being taught in this parable.  Is Jesus teaching that the way to get God to do what you want Him to do is just keep on pestering Him day and night until He finally relents and gives you what you want?  Is that what Jesus is saying in this parable?  I’m afraid that many television preachers who favor what is called the “word of faith” style of name it and claim it theology which is so prevalent today do in fact teach that is what Jesus is saying.  They say this is evidence that the key to getting what you want from your prayers is just being persistent, and sooner or later God will either get tired of your prayers and give you what you want, or He will reward your perseverance and give you what you want. But either way the end result is the same; that you get what you want.  And that encapsulates those kind of people’s doctrine concerning prayer.  God is kind of like a reluctant genie who needs to be prodded and bothered to the point of finally giving us what we want.

If you happen to hold that doctrine, then I am afraid that I am here to tell you that is not a Biblical view of God, first of all, and neither is it a Biblical view of prayer.  The key hanging on the door is that we are to always pray and not lose heart.  Always pray we should understand to some extent at least.  But what is meant by don’t lose heart?  What are we in danger of losing heart about?  Not getting that new car that I have been asking God for?  Is that it?  I would suggest that the context of this passage indicates that it  means a little more than that.

First of all, losing heart is translated from the Greek word, “egkakeō”, (en-kä-ke’-ō) which means to lose heart or become discouraged.    Now why would the disciples become discouraged?  Well, the answer comes in the context of the preceding chapter.  Jesus presents this parable as a continuation of His teaching on the coming of the kingdom of heaven which started in vs. 20 of chapter 17. We are sometimes done a disservice by the relatively modern convenience of chapter and verse headings.  They weren’t there when Luke originally wrote the book.  They can be very helpful in helping us navigate through the Bible, but in cases like this we too often tend to see them as introducing an entirely new concept when actually that is not the case, it should be a continuation of what went before..

Now we looked at this passage in detail last week but it might help to have a quick review.  Starting in vs.20 Jesus presents some characteristics about the coming of the kingdom of God.  The first principle that He teaches is that it was already here.  The kingdom of God is where the King is.  And Jesus Christ was the incarnation of God Himself upon the earth.  So He says the kingdom of God is in your midst.  Jesus Christ was the kingdom of God realized.   He was the King prophesied in the Old Testament, coming from the throne of David, the Lion of Judah.  Yet though the kingdom was realized in Jesus Christ, it was still an invisible kingdom.  It was a spiritual kingdom.  It was inaugurated in Jesus Christ, and manifested in the lives of those who believed in Him and who had given their hearts to Him.  So the kingdom of God is simply Jesus ruling in the hearts of His people.  Those who have surrendered their lives to Him, are following Him and obeying His will.  Those people by the way are called the church of Christ.  The church then is the manifestation of the kingdom of God throughout the world.  That is how the kingdom operates and functions.  In and through the church.  The church is not a building, but a body of believers who are the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in them and empower them to live as God would have us live.

But there is another stage of the kingdom of God which is yet to come.  And Jesus references that in vs. 22 to 37 of the last chapter.  This stage is the future consummation of the kingdom.  When the King comes back for His bride, the church, and He brings about the consummation of all things.  And the first thing He says about that time yet in the future is that (vs.22) “The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.”  In other words, there is going to be a season after Jesus leaves Earth, when His followers are going to be longing for His return.  It’s going to seem like He has been gone forever.  Like He is never coming back.

Peter spoke of that attitude that will be prevalent in those days in 2Pet. 3:3-4, “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,  and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”  Now this is where the danger of losing heart comes in.  This is where the danger of becoming discouraged comes in.  God doesn’t act in the time frame that we thought He would.  He doesn’t fit into our patented doctrine of eschatology that we expected.  And so the danger is that we become discouraged, even disillusioned and fall away from the truth.  Jesus warned in Matthew 24 that the difficulty and discouragement of those days would be so great, that He says if it were possible, even the very elect would be misled into apostasy.

So in light of the context of this passage, I believe of this clearly shows that the reason that Jesus gives the disciples (and by extension to us) this parable is that when those discouraging times come, when we long for His coming and yet it seems like it will never come, that we would continue to pray and not lose heart.  He wants us to stay resolved in our faith and not lose hope of the King returning for His bride.

I don’t know about you folks, but sometimes I must confess I get discouraged.  I begin to lose heart.  When I look at the political landscape in our country I become discouraged.  There is no salvation in Washington, I’m afraid.  When I see the moral decline in our society I sometimes lose heart.  It is a tough time to be a Christian. It’s a tough time to be a man, period.  It’s beginning to be a tough times for the church.  I fully expect that within a few years I will no longer be able to stand out here and preach with boldness the Word of God without being arrested.  Though persecution of the church is no where near the point where it was during the time of the Apostles, or even during the Middle Ages, yet I believe we are at a point in history where the persecution of the church is starting to ramp up.  People are starting to lose jobs because of their faith.  Christians are starting to experience difficulty maintaining their faith in the public arena.  If you stand up for your faith today on most college campuses you will bring on yourself a firestorm of ridicule and attacks.  They will more than likely require you to attend sensitivity training.  Judges are requiring businesses to not only accept but promote an ungodly lifestyle or face fines and possibly incarceration.  The government is trying to force abortion rights through health care legislation.  To quote the Revolutionary War hero Thomas Paine, “these are the times that try men’s souls.”

As Christians, we need more than ever to remember what Paul said in Phil. 3:20, that our citizenship is in heaven.  That is where we will finally one day fit in.  This world is not our home.  We are aliens living in a foreign country, longing for home.  Our hope is not in social programs, or political parties, or in new legislation.  Our hope is for Jesus Christ to return and vindicate His followers.  Our hope is for Jesus to make all things new; to create a new heaven and a new earth.  Our hope is for Jesus too put an end forever to sin and death and the devil.  Our hope is for a glorified body that will never die and never get sick and never grow old. Our hope is to see Jesus.

So Jesus presents this parable because He was concerned that the disciples would soon experience the kind of discouragement similar to that a wife who suddenly finds herself widowed.  He was going to Calvary to offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin upon the cross.  He would rise from the dead, but after a few days would ascend into heaven with a promise that one day He would return again for those that remained faithful. And Jesus knew that most of them would die for the cause of Christ. So Jesus offers this parable to illustrate that in the days to come, they should always pray and not lose heart.

Let’s look at the parable for a moment.  We could easily go off in all sorts of directions with this parable if we do not stay within the confines of the context that I just gave you.  Jesus is actually making a very simple point.  The first thing you should realize is that it was very common in those days to argue from the lesser to the greater.  This was the way that rabbis or teachers would present an argument.  If such and such is true in the lesser example, then it stands to reason that such and such is even more true in the greater example.  It was a graphic way of showing contrast and at the same time illustrating a greater truth.

And so Jesus begins this parable by inventing a story of an unrighteous judge.  Now this judge would be the lesser example.  Jesus says this unrighteous judge “did not fear God and did not respect man.”  This guy was in it for himself.  He was in it for money.  In that society, bribery was commonplace.  Most of the time the judges were political appointees.  And so they used these positions of power to feather their own nests.  It was practically expected.  And Jesus paints a pretty dark picture of this judge.  He isn’t going to do what is right because he loves God or because he has any love of his fellow man.  He was in it for himself.

But Jesus says there is a widow that “kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.’”  Now in that society a widow was a helpless individual.  She had practically no rights without a husband.  She may have had no source of real income.  She could not buy property.  She was the type of person that this unrighteous judge could care less about.  She had no political power, no money to offer, no husband to stand up for her.   And this judge could care less about this sort of person.  She had nothing to offer him.

But as we look at vs. 4, we see that even though this judge was a scoundrel, something about the woman’s persistence was enough to cause him to act on her behalf.  “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’”  Now that is the parable;  even though he didn’t respect her, doesn’t love God or people, even though he is only out for himself, yet because she is persistently being a bother to him, even to the point of wearing him out, he decides to act on her behalf.  The Greek there is actually saying she gives him a black eye.  I think we would say it like this;  “she is beating me up”.  The woman was relentless.  And he figures it would be easier to answer her than have to look forward to seeing her show up at his court every day.  So the judge and the widow is the lesser example.

Jesus now uses that lesser example to contrast with the greater example.  Vs. 6, “And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge *said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly.”  If such help is given by an unrighteous judge to someone he considers a nobody, then how much more will the righteous God bring about justice for his elect who cry to Him day and night?  Will He delay long over them?  Obviously, the answer is that the righteous God will answer His people’s prayers to Him for deliverance.  He will not delay any longer than necessary to bring about justice for the elect.  See the elect are not just nobodies.  The world may think you don’t matter.  That being a Christian is equivalent to being a loser.  They may think that what we suffer is insignificant.  But it is not so with God.  We are His chosen ones, the bride of Christ.  We are of such value to God that He gave Jesus up to suffer and die for us that He might bring us to Himself.  How much more then will the righteous God bring about justice for His people?

But the problem for most of us is that our timetable is not on par with God’s timetable.  Our agenda is not God’s agenda.  And so we become impatient.  We lose heart, because we don’t get what we want when we want it.  Going back to the reference in 2 Peter we looked at earlier, 2Pet. 3: 8-9 says, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

See the Lord is not slow because He is sleeping or preoccupied.  He doesn’t need to be roused, to be prodded in order to help His people.  But the Lord has a time schedule that is  eternal in scope, whereas ours is temporal.  The years of our lives slip by and we scurry around, worrying about all these temporal things, feeling the weight of every hour and every second.   And yet against the scale of eternity, our lives are but a vapor, here for a few seconds and then gone.

I was trying to explain this concept of time last Wednesday evening at our Bible study where we had several young people in attendance.  And I said that when we have lived a thousand years with God in eternity, it will be like only one day.  And then we live another thousand years and in eternity it is only like having been alive two days.  Can you imagine that? So God’s timetable is different than ours.

But in addition to the principle of eternity is the idea of God being patient with mankind, to give them time to repent.  “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”  This is where Jesus reveals the heart of God.  Yes, God is pictured as a Judge, coming in the consummation to bring judgment to the Earth.  But God is a reluctant judge.  He isn’t willing for any to perish.

We saw that in the last chapter in the illustration given of Noah and the ark which we looked at last week.  Peter says concerning the days of Noah in 1Peter 3:20 that the patience of God kept waiting.  Waiting for what?  What was God being patient about?  Well the answer is He was waiting for people to repent.  The Bible says that Noah was a preacher of righteousness, and that he built an ark for 120 years after God pronounced judgment upon the earth.  For 120 years God kept waiting for people to repent at the preaching of Noah.  And yet they did not repent.

So if our persistent prayer is not necessarily designed to get God to act according to our timetable, or to act on our agenda, then what exactly is prayer designed to do?  I think the answer is found in the last question Jesus asks there in vs. 8, “However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”  Prayer is designed to keep us strong, to keep us from losing heart, from becoming discouraged.  It is to bring us into communion with God, to see God’s perspective, to dialogue with God.  Prayer is designed to keep us in the faith.

Now once again, Jesus brings us back to the real point of this illustration.  He says in vs. 8 “that when the Son of Man comes” will He find faith on the earth.  The emphasis I want to bring out is “when the Son of Man comes” should serve to keep us on track here in the exegesis of this parable.  The parable is about not losing heart because the Lord seems to delay His coming.  It’s about not losing heart in service to the Lord, in the trials and tribulations that accompany salvation.  Did you know that Jesus promises tribulations for His followers?  John 16:33, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”  And because Jesus overcame sin and death and the world and hell and rose again from the grave He now sits on the Father’s right hand and will return again to take out His church, the faithful.

So then how are we to pray?  First of all, Jesus says pray always.  Pray always.  You know, every day I have the intention that today I am going to exercise.  Today I am going to work out.  I have that intention.  I mean well.  But I have learned that unless I purposefully plan a time to work out and then go to that place, it just doesn’t happen.  The day slips by and I lay in bed at night and say, O my, I forgot to work out today.  Or I didn’t have time to work out today.  And I’m afraid that prayer is a lot like that.  I need to schedule prayer.  I got smart one day and decided to combine my prayer and my workout.  So now when I run that is my time to pray.  I run mostly through rural farm roads near my house.  So I can pray out loud and it doesn’t bother anyone.  And I’ve found that works for me.  Maybe you have a long commute to work when you can pray.  But bottom line, if you want to be found faithful, you will make prayer a priority in your life.

Jesus was our best  example of prayer, wasn’t He?  The Bible says He regularly went away by Himself to pray, sometimes all night.  If Jesus needed to pray, how much more do we need to pray?

Remember on the night that Jesus was arrested before His crucifixion?  And He prayed so hard that He sweated drops of blood?  I can’t imagine that kind of  prayer.  But what stands out to me is that He prayed, “Not my will, but Your will be done.”  Even though He was equal with God, He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped or held onto.  He submitted Himself in obedience to the will of God.  He was concerned with the coming of the Kingdom of God.  That was the purpose of His prayer.

So we are to pray always, but what are we supposed to pray for?  Obviously, we pray for the coming of the Lord, the coming of the kingdom. As the example of the Lord’s Prayer illustrates, we should pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” I submit to you that we need to pray not for our will to be done, but for God’s will to be done. We don’t pray to manipulate God to our will, but to be conformed to His will.

So when we are to pray; always.  What are we to pray? The coming of the kingdom, first in our hearts and then in the world.  And finally, why are we to pray? Remember on that night in which He was betrayed, He went into the Garden to pray and took a little further with Him Peter, James and John.  And He said to them, “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  That is why we pray.  Prayer is designed to keep us from falling into temptation.  I’ve never yet fallen into temptation when I was praying, have you?  I fall into temptation when I either deliberately or inadvertently stop praying.  Prayer is a safeguard against temptation.

Unfortunately, many of us are like the disciples were that night.  They were so tired they couldn’t keep their eyes open.  They kept nodding off.  And when suddenly they were awakened by the gang of soldiers and ruffians coming through the woods to arrest Jesus they found themselves woefully unprepared for the trials that lie ahead.  They all ended up falling away from Him that night.  Peter even found himself cursing and denying Jesus to the soldiers around a campfire later that evening.  And like the disciples when we neglect to pray, when we subordinate prayer to rest and relaxation, to 3 hours of television, or computer, we end up falling asleep spiritually.  Prayer is like being on guard.  On watch against temptation.

Listen, I can assure you that tribulations and troubles will come on all who profess Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  God doesn’t want you to lose heart at the trials that will come.  One way to prevent that discouragement that can lead to falling into temptation is to stay on your knees before God.  Acknowledging that you need His help, His protection.  Confessing your trust in His care.  Professing your faith in His promises and His providence.  Entrusting yourself to a faithful Creator.  I hope and pray that when He comes, you will be found faithful.

Heb. 10:19-25  “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God,  let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”  Amen.

Rather than simply presenting an historical narrative, every story, every parable that Luke records is teaching a particular facet of the gospel, or reinforcing a particular principle of the gospel, or adding another layer to the gospel.  In other words, these stories are not just a random biographical detail in the life of Christ.  They may fulfill that biographical function, but more importantly they enrich the gospel message by means of an illustration.

As in the story of the prodigal son and other accounts of healing etc, this story is a real story, an actual historical event, but with allegorical implications.  I don’t think it’s coincidental that there are 10 lepers in this story.  In chapter 15 there were 100 sheep and one is found, there were 10 coins and one is found, there are two sons and one returns.  And so in this story there are 10 lepers and one returns.

What is always the focus of Jesus’ preaching is the nature of salvation.  Jesus went about preaching the kingdom of heaven.  And the point He repeatedly makes is that entrance into the kingdom is only through salvation.  He stresses that entrance into the kingdom is not by heritage, not by nationality, not by family, not through religion, and not through works.  Now there are several facets or doctrines of salvation.  And Jesus keeps revealing these doctrines progressively as He is traveling towards Jerusalem.  And it is apparent that if you are going to fully understand the doctrine of salvation then you must continue to follow Jesus Christ, continuing to learn from Him and continuing to be obedient to Him.  He doesn’t explain every doctrine in every teaching, in every illustration. But He keeps revealing more and more as people continue to follow Him in obedience.  And the same principle of progressive revelation is true for us today as we are obedient to what He shows us.

I’m always kind of bemused by these people that come for a while, and they say we like your teaching, you taught us a lot, you taught us about salvation, but I’m good now.  I got it.  I’m good to go.  And so off they go.  The truth is they only got as far as they wanted to go.  They don’t want to deal with any more, because they don’t like where you are going.  Well, Jesus experienced the same thing.  A lot of people followed Him for a while, but when they found out He was going to be crucified, they got off the bus.  They didn’t want any part of “take up your cross and follow Me.”

Now this story illustrates a great problem in modern evangelical Christianity.  The modern evangelical movement has tried to reduce the doctrine of salvation to embracing a couple of catchwords in hopes of being more seeker friendly.  They have tried to reduce discipleship to maybe working with Habitat for Humanity for a week or two, or maybe going on a short term mission trip.  And they have tried to reduce worship to singing a couple of songs or clapping your hands.  But the truth is that true Christianity is so much more than that.

You know Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are called the gospels.  That is they proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in more or less a biographical form.  The epistles, which were coauthored by the apostles through the Holy Spirit, explain the gospels.  So in the 4 gospels the teaching of Christ is proclaimed, and in the epistles the gospel of Christ is explained.  But when the Apostle Paul sought to write an epistle to the Romans to tell them the truth of the gospel it took him 16 chapters.  Amazingly, our modern preachers manage to present it in it’s entirety in about 20 minutes or less.  But I can’t but feel that we have lost most of it’s meaning in the translation.

Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”  And this story illustrates the danger of a short sided view of salvation that does not address the complete scope of salvation.  A lot of people today when asked how they became a Christian will say something along the lines of this;  “Several years ago, I was diagnosed with a disease, and I prayed to God that He would heal me.  And then I had this operation and I haven’t had a recurrence of it to this day.  And so I began to go to church.”  Or maybe it is something like this;  “well I used to be an alcoholic.  And I finally reached the point where it was destroying my life.  So I started going to AA and I’ve been sober now for 5 years.”  Or maybe their story is like this;  “I was in a terrible marriage. I suffered a lot of psychological abuse.  So I prayed to God to get me out of it.  And one day I left my wife/husband.”  The stories are all different.  But the theme is the same in many of them.  I was in a mess, and I called out to God for help, and He helped me.  That constitutes their salvation in their minds.

Now I don’t want to diminish someone who has had a traumatic event happen in their life.  Very often such an event can be the inducement to turn to God, and as they come to understand their need and how that relates to the gospel, they end up being truly saved. But there is another type of person that I am really talking about, and I believe this story is illustrating, and that is the person who is drawn to God because they are in a crisis of some sort, they have some sort of experience which they consider spiritual or religious, and yet they may have never been truly saved. They may have even had something happen that seems to be miraculous in their lives, truly an act of God, and yet they have never been saved.

I can think of numerous examples of people like that in the years I have been preaching.   They were religious people.  They considered themselves Christians. Some of them even held leadership positions in neighboring churches.  And somehow they came to some of our services for a while and they were stunned at the presentation of the gospel.  They had no prior knowledge of the truth of the gospel.  So when they first heard it preached, they were stunned.  I’ve seen such people cry at the end of the service.  I’ve heard them even call their husbands or someone on the phone afterwards and say something like “I just heard the gospel clearly presented for the first time in my life.”  And yet a few weeks or a few months later they have moved on.  They heard the gospel, but when they found out what salvation actually entailed, they were not really ready to surrender everything to obtain it.  They stopped short.  As Jesus said in chapter 14, when they counted the cost of discipleship they came up short.  They thought that a little knowledge was enough.  A religious experience  or two was quite satisfactory, in their view.  They liked the version of God that they had created and didn’t particularly care for the all consuming version of God that the Bible teaches.

Listen, if you want the gospel of salvation in a nutshell, then here it is:  It is surrendering completely to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Authentic, saving faith in Jesus is ultimately a submission to His Lordship. That is salvation in a nutshell.  It’s the right of the Sovereign to rule over His subjects. Every experience, every crisis, every prayer, every divine response, whether it be grace or a miracle or healing or whatever, is designed to bring you to repentance of self rule, and to prostrate yourself at the feet of Jesus and say “I surrender all to you, and I will serve you all of my days.”  That is surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and that is the means of salvation.  Nothing less will do.

Anything less than that and you will find yourself as Jesus described in Matt. 7:22“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’  In other words, they called themselves Christians, they even claimed to be proclaiming the gospel, they claimed to casting out demons and even doing miracles, and yet Jesus says “I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.” They failed to obey Jesus as Lord of their lives.

So Jesus has been going to great lengths and with great patience pointing this principle out to the people that were following Him in sermon after sermon, and one illustration after another.  And now Luke records yet another incident which helps to illustrate the narrow door of salvation.  It’s very convenient to look at this passage and just say it’s a little story that illustrates our need for gratitude.  But that isn’t the point of the story at all.  Yes, we need to be thankful.  And yes, gratitude should prompt us to respond to God in way that is pleasing to Him.  But don’t think for a moment that this is just an illustration that God is sitting up there in heaven, kind of moping around, a little dejected perhaps, hoping that someone will just remember to tell Him how much they appreciate Him.  God is not that trite.  God is not dependent upon our praise for His happiness.  God is self sufficient.

We sometimes paint this picture of God that is really actually blasphemous.  It’s a picture of a narcissistic God that just lives for the praise of men.  How ridiculous.  God said in Isaiah 1: 11 “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” Says the LORD. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. “When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies– I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.”  He goes on to say that because they come with unrepented iniquity in their hearts when they pray, He will not listen.  God isn’t wringing His hands in heaven hoping we will call.  He is  self sufficient.  In theology it is called the attribute of aseity. (eh see i ty) In Acts 17:25 Paul says that God “is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything.” He is self sufficient.  He doesn’t depend on our praise for His well being.

Now let’s look at this simple story and what it does illustrate for us.  Jesus is traveling towards Jerusalem.  He is heading for the cross in just a few months time.  He knows that and He purposefully is heading there to offer Himself as an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the world. And as He comes to a little village between Samaria and Galilee, He is met by 10 lepers who must have heard he was coming and in desperation to be healed come out to meet Him.

Leprosy was a terrible disease.  It’s something that is still around in some third world countries, but today it is called Hanson’s disease.  Thankfully there are medicines today that can treat it.  But for thousands of years it was a terrible disease.  It was characterized by horrible scaling of the skin, loss of hair, loss of appendages such as ears or noses or fingers. It attacked the nervous system which deadens the skin and appendages in such a way that they are destroyed. It was a terrible, crippling, blinding disease that was also quite communicable.  In Leviticus 13 and 14 God gives a series of laws concerning how this disease was to be handled among the Jewish people.  They were put away from the rest of the people. They were cut off from all contact.  They had to announce that they were unclean when they came near anyone so that the person could be sure to keep their distance.  It was a terrible, terrible disease that isolated a person from the rest of society and ultimately destroyed them.

Now in this case there were ten of them that were together on the outskirts of this village.  And they hear that Jesus is coming.  They know that they are going to die from this disease.  They know that there is no cure.  And yet when they hear that Jesus is coming they come out to meet Him.  They are desperate.  They want to be healed more than anything else in the world.

So they call out to Jesus, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”  Now the word Master shows that they recognized Jesus as one having authority.  The Jews said that about Jesus that He taught as one having authority.  And undoubtedly they knew that He had authority over diseases and evil spirits as well.  These were indisputable facts of Jesus’ ministry.  There was never any denying of His miracles.  So that is what they are appealing to.  Someone who has authority over disease.

And vs. 14 says, when Jesus “saw them, He said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they were going, they were cleansed.”  Boy what a difference between the way Jesus heals and the fake healers heal on television.  Jesus doesn’t remonstrate in a loud voice.  He doesn’t draw attention to himself.  He doesn’t smack anyone on the forehead and knock them down.  He simply tells them to go and show themselves to the priest and as they were going, the 10 lepers were healed.

Now the reason that he told them to go show themselves to the priest is two fold.  One, it was in keeping with the Old Testament law concerning leprosy found in Leviticus 13.  The priests were to examine the person to see if there was any sign of leprosy.  And there was an eight day period where the priest had to reexamine them in order to declare them clean.  So first of all, Jesus is keeping the law regarding leprosy.  Secondly, this examination by the priests will also serve to be a witness to the priesthood.  You can be sure that this was a section of the law that wasn’t utilized very often.  There was no record of the  healing of leprosy  except in the case of Elisha healing Naaman the Syrian about 600 years earlier.  They had to dust off the books for this one.  And you can imagine that the priests would want to know how the lepers had been healed.  This would have been a really fantastic thing;  ten lepers walk in and say we have been healed and Jesus told us to come present ourselves to you.  What a testimony it would have been to the priesthood, who for the most part were not believing in Jesus.

But there is one guy that as he is healed turns back and returns to Jesus, glorifying God with a loud voice.  The Greek says megas phone.  That is where we get the word megaphone.  He came back bellowing as if he had a megaphone, praising God.  And the next vs. says that when he came to Jesus he prostrated himself at His feet giving thanks to Him.  Now there is a connection there.  He is coming to Jesus, glorifying God and then casting himself down at Jesus feet, giving thanks to Him.  I think the connection is that this leper realized that Jesus was in fact the Messiah, nothing less than God in the flesh.  This is the same realization that Peter comes to when Jesus asks the disciples in Matthew 16, “who do men say that I am?”  And Peter answers, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Christ is the Greek word for Messiah, and Son of God renders Him God in the flesh.  I think that is what is represented by this leper prostrating himself at the feet of Jesus.  I think it is symbolic of worship of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Then Luke adds in vs. 16 that this leper was a Samaritan.  Now the Samaritans were considered unclean sinners in the eyes of the Jews.  A good Jew would walk twenty miles out of his way to avoid walking through Samaria.  They hated them.  And to some extent they had good reason.  The Samaritans had disobeyed the commandment of God and intermarried with pagans.  And as such their worship was flawed and they no longer worshipped in the temple, and they only considered certain scriptures valid while discounting others.  So this guy that comes back and worships Jesus is actually really low on the totem pole from a Jew’s perspective.  He was not only a leper but a Samaritan.  But now he is healed and worshipping Jesus.

So Jesus says in vs. 17, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?”   Here is the deal; the nine are healed but continue on to the priests.  They are going back to what that represents; being reinstated in the community.  Being able to rejoin their families, back to their careers.  I’m sure they were thrilled to be healed, but the result is that they go back to the lives that they once knew.

So in vs. 19, Jesus turns back to the Samaritan and says, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”  Actually, the Greek text says your faith has saved you.  The word translated “made you well” is the Greek word sozo, which is almost always translated as saved in most other times it is used.  I guess the translators were considering the physical implications of the word rather than the spiritual.  But I think that it should be translated saved.  He had already been healed.  The other 9 lepers had also been healed.  But the distinction for this man is that in addition to being healed, he was also saved.

Now quickly here are the spiritual applications of this story.  All of the 10 men suffered from the same terrible disease.  And spiritually speaking, nothing speaks of the nature of sin in the eyes of God more so than the disease of leprosy.  You know, the devil does his best to glorify and glamorize sin.  But the fact is that under it’s initially appealing exterior is a corrupt disease that once it gets into your system will continue to eat away at you until it destroys you.  It is disfiguring.  Sin kills the conscience, it destroys the spiritual nervous system of the soul in the same way that leprosy deadens the nerves in the skin and appendages of the body so that they are destroyed.  Sin is a contagious disease.  I think that is another reason that Luke juxtaposes this illustration so shortly after the admonition of Jesus in the beginning of this chapter not to put a stumbling block in front of another person.  Because that is the way sin is spread; from person to person.  It’s a communicable disease.  It got it’s start with Adam and Eve and is passed down from generation to generation.  We all have inherited the bad gene of this disease.  Like leprosy, sin isolates.  Because God is holy we are estranged from God.  We cannot come near God.  We are unclean in the sight of God because of our sin.

O ladies and gentlemen!  We need to see God’s perspective of the horror of sin.  If we saw sin as it really was we would stop playing around with it.  We would stop courting it.  We would run from it, flee from it.  We would be desperate to be saved from it.  And we would be desperate to save our friends and families from the ravages of sin.  Sin is disfiguring.  Sin is crippling.  Sin is a monster that God told Cain in Genesis 4 is crouching at the door and if you don’t master it, it will destroy you.

One of the couples in our church is involved in Teen Challenge which helps people get free from substance abuse.  And just last week they came upon a scene of police cars and ambulances and as they drove up they were told that one of their graduates from Teen Challenge was in the car ahead.  And when they walked up on the car, there sat a man that they knew very well, who had gone through the program, who was sitting in the car dead, overdosed on heroin.  I wonder how this man started on drugs all those years ago.  I wonder if it was just a joint.  Just a little pot, which is harmless of course.  It’s  fun.  It’s no big deal.  But how much heart ache must he have gone through.  How many years did he waste being wasted.  He left behind two boys who will undoubtedly never get over it.  Sin is a cruel master.  Sin is destructive.  Sin makes leprosy look like a fever blister in comparison.  It has eternal complications.  It not only destroys you in this life, it sends men and women to hell.

There is another spiritual application in this story.  And that is that you can have a religious experience, you can be delivered from some great physical crisis in your life, and yet still be unsaved.  I think that is what these 9 lepers who failed to glorify God represent.  They are like people who call out to God for help overcoming something like alcohol and are delivered, but not saved.  They are like someone who comes out of an abusive relationship which they think was a result of prayer to God, and yet they are not saved.  Like someone who is healed from a disease and yet not saved. Whatever the crisis, no matter how dramatic the incident, they experience some sort of physical deliverance which they even ascribe to God, and yet they are unsaved.  They return to their lives.  They go back to the way things were before and they forget the God who delivered them.  They forget that Romans 2:4 says that the kindness of God is supposed to lead you to repentance.  They go on their way, thinking all is well with their soul, and yet though they have been delivered from some physical crisis, they are still unsaved.  I trust that no one here leaves here trusting in some experience that comes short of salvation.

Now lastly, the spiritual application of the Samaritan’s response.  Though the other 9 went on their way, the Samaritan was sozo.  He was saved.  He recognized the depravity of his condition.  He came to Christ in desperation.  He realized the bankruptcy of his soul.  He was helpless and trusted in Jesus to help Him. And when in faith he turned and went towards the priests and suddenly realized that he had been healed, he turned around and ran back towards Jesus.  He runs to Jesus realizing that He is the Messiah, He is the Son of God, He is the source of life that is now coursing through his once dead flesh.  And so he comes back glorifying God and throws himself down at the feet of Jesus and worships Him, praising Him.

This Samaritan reveals the nature of repentance.  He turns away from the past life and runs to Jesus.  He prostrates himself.  That means he has the humility that God requires.  He has the right kind of attitude that God requires.  He may not know every doctrine of the gospel at this stage.  But his attitude is right. He doesn’t just have faith, but he has saving faith. He has the correct view of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  That He is Master, Messiah, Savior, Son of God.  Jesus is deserving of his allegiance, of his servitude, of his adoration, of his worship, of his trust and of his obedience.  That is what it means to accept the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  To bow at the feet of Jesus as Lord.  To say I surrender my all to you, to be at your service.  Like the prodigal son who returned to his father and said, “I am not worthy to be your son, let me be as one of your hired servants.”  That is the attitude required in Lordship. This man exemplifies that.  His faith in Jesus as Lord saved him.

That gospel of salvation is explained further in Rom. 10:8-10,  “But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART”–that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,  that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

Listen, please examine yourselves today in the light of God’s word.  Have you come to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in your life? This Samaritan was saved Jesus said because of his faith. Authentic, saving faith in Jesus is ultimately a submission to His lordship. Not just believing that He existed.  But having faith to be obedient to Him no matter how great the cost. Have you surrendered everything to Him, to do with as He wishes, to use your life for His glory, to live according to His will?  That is the faith that results in righteousness.  That is the way of salvation.  There is no other way that we can be saved.  We must come all the way to the feet of Jesus and prostrate ourselves in submission to His will.  Nothing less than full surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ is what God requires of us.

Edward Perronet wrote All hail the power of Jesus name in 1780.

All hail the power of Jesus’ Name!  Let angels prostrate fall; Bring forth the royal diadem, And crown Him Lord of all!

Ye chosen seed of Israel’s race, Ye ransomed from the fall, Hail Him Who saves you by His grace, And crown Him Lord of all!

Let every kindred, every tribe, On this terrestrial ball, To Him all majesty ascribe,And crown Him Lord of all!

Oh, that with yonder sacred throng We at His feet may fall! We’ll join the everlasting song, And crown Him Lord of all!

Today’s passage of scripture is one that I have found to be one of the most important in the New Testament in regards to understanding the afterlife.   However, my view is not one that is widely shared among Biblical commentators.   There is much disagreement over the proper interpretation of this passage amongst Biblical scholars.  By way of disclaimer, I do not profess in any way to be a Biblical scholar.

However, I will tell you how I view Biblical interpretation.  I believe that God’s word is sufficient in and of itself through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit working within us. To make a practical illustration;  I think that if a man living on a desert island alone in the middle of the Pacific Ocean found a Bible washed up on the beach, even though he had never heard the gospel before that time, if he read the Bible he would have enough understanding to be saved.  Furthermore, if he continued to apply what he learned, and be obedient to what the Bible says, he could learn all the essential doctrine that is necessary.  I believe in the sufficiency of scripture. I believe in the completeness of scripture.  We don’t need some additional revelation and furthermore we should not seek it. And I believe in the absolute authority of scripture.  But I think the caveat to that understanding is that one must be obedient to the Holy Spirit to be taught by the Holy Spirit.  I believe in what I call progressive revelation.  That is as you are obedient to what the Holy Spirit teaches you through the word, then He will continue to lead you and guide you to all truth.  I think that is what is meant by Jesus in John 16:13 says speaking of the Holy Spirit, “that He will guide you into all truth.”

So as I have studied this passage for the last 25 years or so, I have come to see it in some respects as a missing piece to the puzzle of eschatology. Twenty five years ago when my father died I wanted to understand exactly where he was now.  And as I began to seriously study scripture for the answer I began to see how this passage links with other passages to give us a glimpse into the afterlife.  I think that this passage is significant in that it speaks to the issues of heaven and hell straight from the mouth of God Himself.  And so therefore it provides insight that no other person could have regarding the afterlife.

Unfortunately, this passage has suffered almost irreparable harm from well respected commentators and Biblical teachers because it has been relegated to an allegory.  Many well meaning and well respected men have called this a parable and as such have diminished the significance of what Jesus had to say regarding the afterlife.  My contention is that they call it a parable or an allegory in order to sustain what for many of them is a faulty doctrine of eschatology.  In other words, they came by their view of the end times by various means such as being taught a particular view in seminary and this passage does not fit into their doctrine of the afterlife.  Therefore some say that Jesus used fanciful allegorical elements that were not founded in reality in order to teach a principle.  So while they maintain that the principle is important, they say the incidental details described by Jesus are not important and may not even exist as He described them.  He was just using a fable that was popular with the rabbis of that day as a allegory to teach a principle.

I find that approach to be unsatisfactory on a number of fronts.  First of all, I believe it is an actual story of real people, not a parable.  And to support that view I simply point out that in none of the other 40 or so parables that Jesus gave did He ever attach a name to any of the characters.  But this story has 2 characters that are named; Lazarus and Abraham. Abraham was obviously a real person, so it is logical to assume that Lazarus was as well.  Secondly, Luke does not present this story as a parable.  He did not always do so, but many times he did introduce a parable by saying Jesus taught them another parable.  And thirdly, in order to dismiss all the incidental details that Jesus gave as allegorical, you also have to dismiss the normal template that Jesus employed for parables.  But again that is contrary to all the other parables that Jesus gave.  In all the other parables, Jesus used earthly stories to teach a heavenly principle.  And in order to do that He had to use illustrations from real life situations that the people would have been familiar with such a sowing a field with seed, or tending to sheep, or fishing or whatever.  But in this story, they want to say that Jesus uses an imaginary situation with no basis in reality in order to make a spiritual point.

So before we can really understand all that Jesus is teaching here, we must accept it as it appears; an actual story of two men that died which Jesus is able to tell because He is God and knows all things.  And if this information conflicts with what we learned from reading the “Left Behind” series of books, or what some television preacher taught, then we need to be suspect of those sources of information that are in conflict with what Jesus says.  We need to recognize fiction for what it is, and believe that Jesus is only able to speak the truth.

Now that being said, let’s make sure we don’t lose sight of the main point that Jesus was making and focus on the secondary points.  I think that a lot of information can be gleaned here about what happens after death and how that fits with the doctrine of the end times.  And I will address that briefly as we get to it.  But eschatology is not the main point of what Jesus is teaching.

What Jesus is teaching is the same thing He always taught; the gospel of the kingdom of God.  In parable after parable, in  illustration after illustration, and in confrontation after confrontation, Jesus was teaching about the kingdom of God.  How to enter the kingdom of God and the distinctiveness of the kingdom of God.  And Jesus does that incrementally by a series of messages.  Sort of like the progressive revelation that I spoke of earlier.  Jesus doesn’t reduce the gospel of the kingdom to a pocket sized tract that says if you want to go to heaven then do these 5 steps in this order and you will be saved.  He doesn’t reduce the gospel to a little formula that says if you pray in just this way you will be saved.  He doesn’t dumb down the gospel to the point of just one word such as “Love”.  He doesn’t say that all you need to do is have a relationship with God.

No, if anything, Jesus seems to be making it more and more difficult to enter the kingdom of God.  When you look back over the last few chapters, it’s obvious that Jesus’ message becomes ever more confrontational.  He keeps talking about the same themes but from different perspectives.  But instead of making it easier to enter the kingdom Jesus seems to be making it harder.  He keeps raising the bar.

Just a cursory glimpse back reveals this fact. In chapter 14 Jesus said that no one can be His disciple who isn’t willing to count the cost of what it takes to follow Him.  He says no one can be His disciple that isn’t willing to give up his own possessions.  He goes on to say it may be necessary to leave your family in order to follow Him. He says that no one can follow Him unless he is willing to carry his own cross and come after Him.  He was going to Calvary to be crucified, and He says you have to be willing to do the same thing.

And to illustrate those principles He then gave a parable about a rich man who gave a big feast and invited all these people to his dinner.  They all said they wanted to come.  But when the time came for the dinner they all were busy doing other things; some were busy with work, others were busy with family, and others were busy buying and selling.  And Jesus said the host became very angry because they would not come to his dinner, and so he swore that none of those who were invited would taste of his dinner, but instead he would bring in people from the highways and the outer reaches to eat his dinner.

And so Jesus just keeps turning up the heat, revealing the exclusivity of the kingdom.  Repeatedly emphasizing that God will not be relegated to second place but must have preeminence.   By the time we get to chapter 16, Jesus has focused His attention on money and the world’s goods as symptoms of an unregenerate heart.  He says you cannot serve God and mammon.  You are either loving the world and the things of the world, or you love God and the things of God. He was illustrating that how you live reveals who you belong to.  See, the problem was that there were a lot of people in Jesus’ day, just as there are a lot of people in our day, that claim to be in the kingdom of God.  They seem to be pretty religious people on the surface.  But Jesus said God looks on the heart.  God sees the heart.  He knows the motives.  And Jesus sees the hypocrisy of those that say that they love God and yet in reality love the world.  They haven’t left anything for Christ.  They haven’t forsaken the world, but yet they want to claim the benefits of the kingdom.

In Jesus time, much as it is in our time, people thought that they were in the kingdom of God because of a relationship.  The Jews claimed their relationship to Abraham who they felt was their spiritual father.  And because they were descendants of Abraham they believed they were in the kingdom.  And so as proof of their favored status, they believed that prosperity was a blessing from God.  So the more religious you were, the more money that you had because that is how they defined blessing.

That sounds a lot like the prosperity gospel  that false teachers like Joel Olsteen and Joyce Meyers and others on the CBN network love to espouse today.  They tell you that it costs nothing to have a relationship to God, that He just loves you so much and He wants to bless you.  And if you just have faith in God then He will give you all kinds of blessings.  Particularly monetary blessings.  God wants you to be rich.  That concept of blessing happens to be completely at odds with Jesus’ teaching.

So Jesus tells this story to once again show the disparity between what you claim to be and what you are.  He tells this story to show that how you live is a reflection of what you believe.  And that if earthly prosperity is what you are living for, then eternal destitution is what you are headed for. Furthermore, He teaches that you cannot discard the law of God to please yourself and still claim to love God.  You cannot love God and despise your neighbor.

Now as we look at this story, Jesus says that the rich man had all that the world could offer;  Jesus said “he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day.”  Purple was a very expensive dye in those days.  And so this guy had all the best clothes that money could buy.  He ate the finest food. Luxury characterized this man’s life.

Then Jesus contrasts that life of luxury with that of a beggar.  He  said that there was a poor man named Lazarus who laid outside the gate of the rich man’s house.  This beggar was covered in sores and longed to even eat of the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table.  In those days, dogs were not pets like we have now.  They roamed the street in packs and were filthy, mangy dogs that carried diseases.  And we can assume from this description that Lazarus is probably disabled because Jesus said he laid at the gate and the dogs came up and licked his sores.  He was unable to defend himself against the wild dogs roaming the streets.

Now from a superficial point of view, Lazarus was a nobody.  He had nothing.  No friends, no family and no resources.  And in contrast to him, the rich man had everything the world had to offer.

But what goes without saying was that obviously Lazarus had something of the greatest value that wasn’t apparent on the outside, but God knew his heart.  And so when Lazarus died, God sent His angels to take him to Abraham’s bosom.  Lazarus was so poor that he didn’t even get a proper burial.  They probably carted him off to the local dump and dropped him off there.

The rich man also dies.  You know, death is the great equalizer, isn’t it?  Death comes to us all, whether we live in a cottage or a castle.  Whether rich or poor, death comes to us all.  Hebrews 9:27 says that it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.  Jesus says the rich man was buried.  I’m sure he had a nice funeral.  Lots of people may have said nice things about him.  But though he was rich in the world’s goods he was destitute in the matter of eternity. The rich man died and found himself in Hades.

Vs. 23 Jesus says, “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.”

Now I don’t want to lose sight of the primary focus of the message.  But I will take a moment to teach you what I think this passage is saying concerning the afterlife.  In the Old Testament, the afterlife was referred to as Sheol.  It was the abode of the dead.  In the New Testament, Sheol is referred to as Hades.  And according to what is implied in Scripture, Hades is in the middle of the Earth.  It is composed of two compartments, an upper and lower region.  The upper region is what is called Paradise.  And the lower regions is simply called Hades; a place of torment and fire.  Between the two, Jesus says, is a great gulf, or chasm.

Now that brings up a lot of questions that the Bible does not answer.  We don’t know how this all functions.  We don’t know how spirits experience torment from flames, for instance.  We don’t know how Abraham and the rich man were able to communicate across such great distances between Paradise and Hades.  We are just given glimpses behind the veil of death that do not answer all our questions.

But here is what we do know.  Jesus said to the thief on the cross as He was dying, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.  And yet three days later He told Mary after His resurrection to “stop clinging to Me, I have not yet ascended to My Father.”  So if God is in heaven and Jesus went to Paradise then He must have gone to Hades.  And so He did according to a number of passages in the Bible.  Acts 2:27 “Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither will  You suffer your Holy One to see corruption.”  Peter says that while He was there He preached to those in prison.  That would be the souls in Hades. 1Pet. 3:18-19  “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison,”   Paul tells us where Hades is located in Eph. 4:8-9 “Wherefore he said, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?” The apostle’s creed confirms that; “Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell: The third day he rose again from the dead.”

Furthermore, we know that in Paradise we experience the presence of the Lord.  Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  Jesus is omnipresent because He is God.  And God will comfort His people in Paradise.  And we also know that we will not stay there, but we are awaiting the resurrection of the dead.  One day Jesus promised to return for His people and Paul describes this in 1Thess. 4:15, “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.” [asleep is a Biblical term for the dead in Christ, those in Paradise] “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. [this is the first resurrection, the dead in Christ] “Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.  Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

Now there will be another resurrection that is described in Revelation 20:13, that of the dead in Hades, the unsaved awaiting the judgment.  It says, “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.”  Now that’s a summary of my view of eschatology.  I am not going to break fellowship with someone who disagrees with me on a point or two.  And I hope you will have the same attitude and don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.  But hopefully I have illustrated why I think this passage is the key to understanding what happens after we die.

But even if you disagree with me on some of the particulars of eschatology, one thing should be absolutely clear from this illustration.  There are two possible outcomes when you die.  There are only two possible destinies.  If you want to call it heaven or hell that is fine by me.  Jesus calls it Hades and Abraham’s bosom.

Now let’s look at the rest of the story. The rich man in Hades, being in torment in the flames, lifts up his eyes and sees Lazarus afar off in Abraham’s bosom.  Now in a previous chapter, Jesus said to the Pharisees “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out.”  See, the Jews thought that Abraham was their father and they inherited the kingdom of God from him.  But Jesus is saying that they would not enter because they were children of Abraham but only if they were children of God.  Entrance into the kingdom is not by the means of the flesh but by the work of the Spirit.

For Lazarus, Abraham’s bosom is a reference to the celebratory feast like that the father of the prodigal son threw in his honor.  Jesus said that there was celebration among the angels over one sinner who repents.  Abraham’s bosom is a way of speaking of the place of honor at that feast, leaning against the person at the head of the table. It is a place of comfort, of peace, of reward, of being filled with good things.

Jesus does not describe the conversion of Lazarus.  But please understand that there is no social gospel here that is teaching that there is some sort of merit to being poor.  But rather Lazarus typifies the attitude of a person enters the kingdom.  In the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5, Jesus says “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.”  “Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.”  Jesus was picturing in that sermon just the sort of attitude that Lazarus symbolized.  If you will enter the kingdom of God, then you must recognize that your own righteousness counts for nothing.  You must come to God as a beggar, begging for forgiveness.  You must come like the prodigal son who said I am not worthy to be your son, please let me be as your servant.  You must come mourning over your sin.  That is repentance.

In contrast, the rich man is in torment.  He whose life was one of ease and luxury on earth is now in terrible torment.  But again, Jesus isn’t advocating some sort of social justice, but He is describing divine justice.  He is describing the wrath of God against sinners.  He is illustrating the same principle He espoused in the earlier parable concerning the invitation to the dinner and the people that were too busy to come.  He is displaying the judgment of God upon those that are too busy living a life in the world to value the things of God’s kingdom.  His life of selfishness and self fulfillment did nothing to store up for himself treasure in the kingdom of God.  He has not invested in eternity and so he is now destitute.

The rich man calls out to Abraham to send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water so that a drop could be given to quench his agony in the flames.   This statement reveals first of all that he knew Lazarus.  He knew his name.  He obviously had seen him lying at his gate begging all those years and known who he was and his condition and yet he had ignored him.  And in so doing he ignored the law of God.  Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment in the law, and He said, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength and the second one is like unto it; you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Well the rich man had defied the law of God.  He neither loved God nor his neighbor.  You can’t get a much closer neighbor than one that lays outside your driveway every day.  Here is a guy who never lifted a finger to help Lazarus, and now that he is helpless he wants Lazarus to help him by dipping his finger in water. He is still trying to order people around to serve himself.  He loved only himself.

Listen, love is not about liking someone.  It’s not about loving your friends.  It’s about loving the unloveable, loving your enemies. Loving those that don’t deserve it.  Love is not an emotion, but an act of will.  God’s love is sacrificial love; agape love.  It’s the kind of love that Christ had for us that He laid down His life for us.  God says if you love Me, you will feed My sheep.  If you love Me, tend My lambs.  If you say you are in the kingdom of God, that you are a child of God, then act like God.  Be gracious to those who need it and even to those who don’t deserve it.  The rich man lived luxuriously for himself.  His lifestyle manifested the kind of person that he was.  He revealed what he believed by how he lived.  Listen, God isn’t interested in lip service.  This idea that we can honor God by giving Him lip service, singing a few “praise” songs and then live the rest of the week for ourselves is a lie from the devil.  God is honored by obedience.  “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

Then the rich man tries to order another service from Lazarus.  If you can’t help me, how about helping out my family?  I have five brothers back home.  Send Lazarus back there to warn them so they will not to come to this place.  But once again Abraham tells him it isn’t going to happen. Vs. 29, “But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’  “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.’”

This little exchange is insightful because it speaks of the way people think about the gospel.  If God would just reveal Himself to me then I would be saved.  If God would just do some great miracle that I want Him to do then I would be saved. We try to dictate the terms of our surrender.  But the truth is that they wouldn’t be saved.  Salvation is by faith.  And what is seen is not faith, but that which is unseen.  Salvation is nothing less than unconditional surrender to the God of the universe, to serve Him completely.  Abraham says that they have Moses and the prophets and that is enough.  Let them listen to them.  What he is referring to is the entire scriptures up to that point.  That was a way of referring to all of the known scriptures, from Genesis to Malachi.  Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, commonly known as the Law.  And all the rest of the scriptures was called the prophets.

You may remember how on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection, Jesus joins two disciples who are walking and are discussing among themselves in a very discouraged way the events of the last few days.  And as Jesus joins their conversation, it says in Luke 24:27“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”  The point being is that they had even in the Old Testament more than enough revelation to know that Jesus was the Messiah.  He was the seed of the woman who would crush Satan’s head, He was the offspring of Abraham who would bless all the nations of the earth, He was the substitute for the sacrifice that Abraham was offered in place of his son.  He was the Great High Priest who would enter into the Holy of Holies once for all.  He was the scapegoat that was driven outside the camp.  He was the lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.

The scripture is still the way to enter the kingdom of God. Romans 1 says it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.  We want to try to use all sorts of modern media, to try to dumb down the gospel, we want to make our churches seeker friendly so we don’t scare someone out of the church.  But we have forgotten the admonition of Jesus; John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

1Cor. 1:18, Paul said, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.  For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.  Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.  For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:  But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

In closing, I am very concerned that so very many people exist today in the church that think that they are ok, that think they are in the kingdom of God.  They claim to have a relationship with God based on some external thing or other and yet their hearts are unchanged.  They may have been baptized.  Or they may have had an emotional experience once that they thought was spiritual.  Maybe they had some crisis and they were told to have faith in God and they think that was how they got saved.  Some raised their hand in an emotionally charged service one time and maybe came forward and said a prayer.  I don’t know what you are trusting in for your eternal destiny.  But I hope you are trusting in the truth of the gospel.  I hope you have come to Christ as the prodigal son came home, in repentance, willing to become a servant.  I hope that you have come like Lazarus, as a beggar, mourning over your sinful condition.  Helpless, hoping only in God’s grace and Christ’s righteousness and begging to be made a new creation.  Listen, it’s not about just believing in God.  The Bible says the devil’s believe in God and they are not saved. Eph. 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Grace is the gift of God; sending Jesus to take your place on the cross to pay the penalty of your sins.  Faith is believing in all that God is and all that God says that He is in His word.  Abraham was the father of faith.  Abraham believed God and it was counted unto Him as righteousness.  How did Abraham show he believed God?  By obeying, going out to a place that he didn’t know, living in tents, confessing that he was  a stranger and a sojourner in this world.  He had faith to obey God.  That is the result of faith; to be given a new heart, a new spirit,  created for good works, so that we would walk in them.  Salvation is a desperate appeal unto God to remake you and forgive you and change you so that you might serve Christ and Christ alone.

Listen, the rich man’s lifestyle revealed what he believed. As a man thinks in his heart so is he. You can fool other people into thinking you are a Christian.  You can even fool yourself into thinking you are a Christian.  But you cannot fool God.  God sees the heart.   I pray that today you examine yourself in the light of God’s word. Today is the acceptable day of salvation. There are only two possible destinations when you die.  There are no second chances. God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.  Let’s pray.