Text:
Luke
16: 14-31
Focus: Salvation
by law vs Salvation by faith
Function: To
help people see how faith is expressed in works.
Form: Bible
Study, Story-telling
INTRO:
Does anyone think it is odd that I am preaching two passages that
seem to have little to do with each other?
I appreciate the
inspiration of the Brother Luke when he placed Jesus' these two
passages together.
They belong together.
The end of verse 14
tells us why: “They ridiculed him...” NIV: “they sneered at
Him”
And on the surface, it
almost appears to be a non-sequitur, a “change the subject.”
response. But it isn't.
They, who are described
in this passage as “lovers of money” ridicule Jesus for His
words.
His words, verse 13
are: “You cannot serve two masters... ...you cannot serve God and
money.”
Apparently, they
thought they could.
So,
the parable about the rich man and Lazarus makes sense, it is
judgment against those who are greedy, demonstrated by their
refusal to help those whom God has placed at their doorstep.
It is a condemnation, in one of the most severe senses in the entire
Gospels. The rich man is suffering torment in hell for his refusal
while the poor man is enjoying eternal comfort.
And Jesus states in
this passage that the only difference between them was the fact that
the rich man, while enjoying worldly success before he died, refused
to care for the one who never had any real comfort. He refused to
care for the man who was sitting AT HIS DOOR.
We cannot save the
world entire, but we can minister to those that God has placed at our
door.
The story of the rich
man and Lazarus seems to be a fitting response to the Pharisees
derision when Jesus condemned them for loving money.
So, what about Jesus
little parenthesis about adultery in between those two passages?
Did somebody make a
mistake at one time or another and accidentally insert it in the
wrong place? That might be more likely if they were using a word
processor and they accidentally cut and pasted it in the wrong spot
because they couldn't see the cursor or something.
But no, This is the
order of all the ancient manuscripts. So, what does divorce and
remarriage have to do with the love of money?
Verse 15: “You try to
justify yourselves in the sight of others but God knows your
hearts...”
In both this
explanation about divorce and adultery and the parable of the rich
man and Lazarus, Jesus is showing them how far short their
self-justification, their self-righteousness, falls from God's
perfect redemption.
They prided themselves
in the fact that the Law justified them.
But, the implication
is, that in their “free to divorce and remarry society,”
apparently a transgression that most of them had committed, they
could not be justified by the law.
So, first they are
condemned by the letter of the law that they felt so proud of
upholding. But what is worse is the story of the rich man and Lazarus
and the way it sheds a light on their condemnation for missing the
“Spirit of the Law.”
Remember, everything in
scripture must be taken in context. And so, if anyone here is
divorced and remarried and is feeling guilty or condemned, remember,
Jesus isn't teaching about divorce and remarriage, Jesus' context is
how impossible it is to justify ourselves by the letter of the law.
What needs to be
focused on, for salvation, is the Spirit of the law. And that is
where this story of the rich man and Lazarus comes into play.
And I want to focus on
those two men, with this thought: “The letter of the law kills, but
the Spirit behind the law gives life.” (2
Corinthians 3:6)
READ Verses
27-31:
27He
said (the
rich man to Abraham, in the torment of hell),
‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house—
28for
I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not
also come into this place of torment.’ 29Abraham
replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to
them.’ 30He
said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the
dead, they will repent.’ 31He
said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
This is pretty scary
stuff.
What is their
condemnation? They knew the law, but they did not listen to it.
Look
at Luke 22:37-40: 37He
said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This
is the greatest and first commandment. 39And
a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
40On
these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Or
John 13:34: 34A
new commandment I give you: Love one another.
Or
Romans 13:9-10: 9The
commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder;
You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other
commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as
yourself.” 10Love
does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the
law.
The Pharisees were
condemned because they did not follow both the letter of the law,
demonstrated in divorce and adultery passage, neither did they follow
the spirit of the law demonstrated in the story of the rich man and
Lazarus.
And there is a warning
here. We can know the Bible, but the proof of our Christianity is our
actions, not our words.
Divorce
is a terrible thing, just ask anyone who has gone through it. But it
isn't a litmus test for who is in or out of the Kingdom of heaven.
The test is in the
actions.
And in this case, it
has to do with how the rich man ignored the man at the door, or how
well we, love the poor.
What
does it mean to love the poor? What does it mean in this day and age?
If we are saved by our confession of Christ, just how important is
this loving your neighbor as much as we love
ourselves?
Will we, when we get to
heaven have many accounts of not caring for the poor at our doorstep,
end up like the rich man and say to God: “You were serious about
that?”
So, let me take this
home to today and tell you about a time I am pretty sure I saw an
angel.
But let me give you a
warning: Don't say amen to quickly.
I am setting this up,
but not trying to set you up. I am not like the salesperson who says:
You want American made knives don't you? You want knives that can cut
both granite and tomatoes, don't you? You want knives that will never
need sharpening, don't you?
And we all know that if
we start saying yes, then the salesperson has more power to close the
sale even though afterwards we might regret spending 600 dollars on a
set of knives?
So wait to say “amen”
because I am setting this up. Alright?
Now, the angel.
How familiar are you
with Isaiah 58?
It is one of my
favorite passages of the entire Bible.
I was preaching on it,
one Sunday.
It is a passage about
loving the poor.
In the passage, the
people of God are fasting and praying for a revival. “Lord, send
back the old time religion.”
And the world just
seems to be getting worse.
And they ask God why
revival does not come. So the prophet Isaiah is asking God why
revival doesn't seem to come.
God answers the prophet
with the fact that although they have the religious part of fasting
down well, they have not bothered to care about what God cares about.
Specifically, God tells
them that they don't pay their workers enough, their business deals
are not win-win, but win-lose and they don't care about the loser.
But the biggest condemnation, in my opinion is the way that they
point fingers of accusation against the poor, apparently with words
like lazy, or stupid.
And that was the gist
of my sermon.
And I wondered as I was
preparing it just how far God wanted me to go with this principle to
never point an accusing finger at the poor.
It is easy for me to
ignore the poor with words like “entitlements, lazy, socialism and
etc.”
IT IS EASY FOR ME. I
am not accusing anyone else. This was God speaking to me.
So how did this bring
me into contact with an angel?
I
believe it was a fulfillment of Hebrews 13:2. A command that says:
“Do not neglect
to show hospitality to strangers because by so doing, some have
entertained angels without knowing it.”
That is probably a
reference to Lot being from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
because he was the only one who showed hospitality to angels
disguised as men.
But the command is
relevant to today.
This happened to me
about 20 years ago.
I was at my church
(tell the story). *
God convicted me of my
judgment against the poor and showed me just how serious He was about
not pointing the finger at that man.
Indeed, the poor we
will always have with us.
And in one part, that
means that we cannot solve all of the problems with the poor. It is
too big a job.
But we can, and must,
take care of the one at our door.
The rich man was
condemned to hell fire for refusing to take care of the one who was
at his door.
So the question of the
day for us is this: Who is at our door?
*The story:
I pastored a Church
right on exit 14 of Interstate 69. It was exit ramp, parsonage,
Church.
And because of our
location, we had lots and lots of requests for help from travelers
passing by.
At the intersection
there was a Pilot gas station with a small grocery and a Subway.
Whenever people
stopped, I would buy them a tank of gas, some groceries and some
Subway sandwiches.
Thankfully, once a
month the “Christian Men's fellowship” among all the local
churches sponsored a breakfast fund raiser to provide me with the
funds.
I would typically
charge the expense to my credit card and get reimbursed from the
Treasurer.
But, I am not sure how
Christian it was. The fellowship was great, but once I put a man up
in a motel for the night. It was a cheap motel and I called the
treasurer that night to inform him and set up my reimbursement. He
confirmed the motel and the room number the man was staying in.
The treasurer did two
things that shocked me. First, he yelled at me for getting a hotel,
refused to reimburse me and he said: “the whole idea of this fund
is for you to give them money to send them on the way so that they do
not become our problem.” I winced.
And then he called the
Sheriff and told him that there was a vagrant at the motel and would
the sheriff kick him out.
Oh Lord, help us.
But as years went by at
that Church, I started to get cynical, or maybe skeptical about most
of the people I was helping.
God sent an angel to
change my thinking.
And I noticed
something. It seemed like everyone I was helping was on the way from
Texas to Michigan for a funeral of either an aunt, mother, or
grandmother.
It felt like somewhere
on the South side of Indianapolis was a rest area with a sign that
said: “The pastor at the Church on exit 14 is generous and will
give you money if you tell him you are on a trip from Texas to
Michigan for a funeral.”
When someone would
knock on the door and start to say: “I am on my way...” I wanted
to finish their sentence!
So, it is Sunday
morning, early. I am at the Church rehearsing my sermon and I look
outside.
The way this church was
set up, from the pulpit, you could see the main entrance.
And right in front of
the door was a man, early 30's in sweat pants. He stopped at the
door, bent over, raised the sweat pant on his right leg to reveal a
prosthetic leg. He didn't raise the other. But I could see him do
this intentional thing to garner more sympathy from me.
I began to doubt him
He walks in with the
“You the preacher? I am on my way from Texas...”
But this guy seemed
real clever.
I never give cash.
Heaven forbid someone get cash, buy a bottle of liquor and go home
and beat their wife.
But this guy, it seems
to me, had a clever way to get me to give him cash instead of buying
him a tank of gas, Subway sandwiches and groceries.
Now the motor head guys
and gals will get this right away, He says: “The transmission seal
is bad on my truck and I need money to buy transmission fluid.”
Now, transmission fluid
is expensive. It is so expensive that it generally comes in pints
containers that cost several dollars each. And I am thinking he is
going to want $30-$40 in cash, which is what I would have spent on
him at the Pilot anyway. However, when a person doesn't want gas and
food, only cash, you get suspicious.
And he seemed to have a
good excuse.
But I am thinking in
the back of my head: “I got you, you liar.”
Because, on my next day
off, I was planning on changing the filter and transmission on my
full size Chevy van. I have 2 gallons of transmission fluid ready for
him and I do not have to give him any cash.
I couldn't wait to see
the look on his face when a pint or two of fluid will fill him up and
his lie was exposed.
But guess what? His
truck took the entire 2 gallons of fluid. He was not lying.
And I was getting ready
to preach about giving to the poor, but being very careful that we
did not enable them. I had all the cliche's about poverty down.
And instead, God showed
me the scripture: “Do not neglect to show...”
Because I was preaching
about not judging the poor that morning and this happened, God
changed my mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment