Welcome to today's edition of the Weekend Sermon. I am always glad when Friday rolls around so that I can post the sermon. I hope that everyone is doing very well today.
This past week, I took a little vacation time away from work. It was nice to have a break. I've submitted a lot of writing to publishers this week, so I hope that that will all go well.
In prayer this week, please continue to remember the people in Haiti who are trying to recover from the hurricane. Also, pray for refugees and the homeless that they might find the resources that they need in life.
Please continue to pray for peace in this world. Pray for peace in Iraq, Syria, Israel, Afghanistan, Libya, South Sudan, Yemen and Ukraine. Anywhere in the world where you know that there is conflict and strife, please pray for peace. Along with that, let us also pray for justice in this world. Pray for an end of the exploitation of the poor by the rich and powerful.
For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for the nations of Comoros and Tunisia. Pray that the message of Jesus' love will reach many in these two nations and in the nations around this world.
Currently, we are in a series of messages dealing with the parables of Jesus. In last week's message, we examined the parable of the shrewd manager. As I mentioned, I believe that the key to understanding that parable is in verses 14 and 15. The Pharisees knew that it was a parable about the love of money and the proper values we should have in life. Jesus made it clear that you can't serve God and money.
That leads us to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that will be our focus today. This parable has a lot of meaning in it, and we will try to focus on that.
When I was a boy and a young man in the fundamentalist churches that my family attended, the parable was used as a basis to describe what hell was like. We never got down to the depths of the meaning of this parable. This parable was not told by Jesus to tell us what hell is like. The meaning is much different than that.
The basic story of the parable is like this. There was a rich man who had everything that money could buy. He lived in luxury. Outside of his gate was a poor man named Lazarus. Lazarus would have liked to have just had some of the crumbs from the rich man's table to eat. Lazarus was sick and covered with sores. The feral dogs would come and lick his sores. One day, both Lazarus and the rich man died. The rich man went to hell, and Lazarus went to Heaven described as Abraham's Bosom in the parable. The rich man was in torment, and he asked Abraham to send Lazarus to help quench his thirst. Abraham said that this was impossible. The rich man then asked Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers. Abraham said no. Abraham said that if they would not listen to Moses and the prophets, they would not believe even if someone came back from the dead with a message for them.
First of all, Jesus told this parable to demonstrate that the religious leaders of his day had a flawed theology of wealth. In Jesus' day, wealth was viewed as a sign of God's favor. If someone was rich, it meant that they were blessed by God and they were in a right relationship with Him. On the other hand, poverty and sickness were seen as being punishment's from God. They were a sign that someone was not in a right relationship with God.
In the parable, Jesus turns this thinking upside down. The rich man is the one who comes under judgment and the poor sick man is the one who goes to an eternal reward. Wealth and health had absolutely nothing to do with the matter. The rich man demonstrated by his callous attitude to Lazarus that he did not value the teachings of the Scripture or those things that Jesus was teaching. He was selfish and let a poor man die at his gate. Lazarus had nothing. However, he had a heart that valued the things of the Lord.
The rich man thought that Lazarus was worthless. Even in death, the rich man thought that Lazarus was someone that could be ordered around to do whatever the rich man wanted him to do. Send Lazarus to me to help quench my thirst. Send Lazarus to my brothers. He never asked Lazarus about it. The rich man just ordered him around demonstrating his arrogance and pride.
When Jesus was on this earth, He reached out to those who the religious leaders excluded. Jesus reached out to the tax collectors and the social outcasts inviting them to follow Him. As we read in Luke 15, the Pharisees despised Jesus because He was friendly to sinners and ate at their houses.
What Jesus condemned in His parable of the rich man and Lazarus takes place among religious people today. Many today teach that wealth is a sign of God's favor and poverty and sickness indicate a lack of faith. This is clearly not the teaching of Jesus.
Many who claim to follow Jesus are just like the rich man in this parable. The poor, sick and hurting are all around. Do we see them as people? Do we do what we can to help them?
I am so distressed right now in my country at how many Christian people are advocating programs that will hurt the poor and the oppressed. How can it be right?
In another parable that we will discuss later Jesus told us about the judgment at the end of the world. Those who did good for the least among them would be reward. Those who did not do good for the least among them would be condemned.
The least of these are all around us. There are many hungry and homeless people who need help. There are many poor people who don't have the basics of life. As the people of God we need to work diligently not to ignore the Lazarus at our gate. We need to reach out and bring help and hope to a hurting world.
Also, Christians need to be at the forefront of speaking out against exploitation of the poor. So many of the rich and powerful of this world use the poor to gain more wealth for themselves. They pay pitiful wages to workers and provide poor living and working conditions. No Christian should be involved in this type of thing.
Now, there are other meanings to this parable as well. One of the meanings is found in the character of Lazarus himself. Lazarus obviously had a very difficult life. He was homeless, sick and destitute. In spite of all of that, he never lost his faith in God. I'm sure he wondered why all of these bad things were happening to him, but he never abandoned his faith. And his faith was rewarded.
There are many who have believed in Jesus who are facing trials and tribulations. Other Christians may have looked down on you because of your circumstances. Please don't give up on the Lord Jesus. Jesus loves you and cares about you. He is with you right now no matter what you are going through. One day, all those who trust in Him will be with Him for all of eternity. Then, all the trials of the present will seem as nothing compared with the joy of being in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
There is one other thing that I wanted to point out about this parable. Jesus directed this parable right at the religious leaders. They had received the message of the Law and Prophets. They knew how they were supposed behave. They knew the prophecies concerning the Messiah and should have recognized Jesus as the Promised One. They refused to believe. They would not even believe when they knew that Jesus rose again from the dead.
The resurrection of Jesus from the grave is the sign that all of what He taught and did was from the Father. Because Jesus rose again, death is defeated and sin is defeated. The resurrection is the proof that all should look to Jesus for salvation and the forgiveness of sins. If a person will not be convinced by the resurrection of Jesus, there is nothing else to say.
This is one of the parables of Jesus that I find to be the most interesting. I've really just scratched the surface of this parable. I urge you to study more about his parable and let these words of Jesus speak to your heart and soul.
Next week, we will continue with our parables of Jesus study. On Monday, I will post the verse of the week. On Tuesday, I think that I am going to post another poem. On Wednesday, I will have a book review. May God bless you all. Amen.
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