Lucas 16
H.A. Ironside · Citado em PreceptAustin
Lucas 16
Ironside - The love of one crowds out love for the other (see Luke 11:34-36+). A. W. Tozer - The streets of gold do not have too great an appeal for those who pile up gold here on earth. Thomas Adams - Wealth can do us no good unless it help us toward heaven. You cannot serve God and wealth (mammonas)- The above axiomatic principle is now directly applied to the present context. One either serves God or mammon, but not both. As they say "pay your money and take your choice," but as a believer do so with eyes wide open, knowing that your choice will have not only temporal consequences, but even more importantly eternal consequences! Notice Jesus is not saying you can not make mammon. That is not the issue. The crux of the case is what you do with what you make. If you use it for your temporal life, you are serving wealth or mammon. If you use it for God's glory and honor and Kingdom growth, then obviously you are serving God. The choice is yours, but as noted above, the consequences you reap are concordant with your choice. The truths Jesus is teaching in this section are directed straight at our heart and our pocketbook and for many this makes them very uncomfortable because they are living for time not eternity. As someone once said a good messages (and every message by Jesus is good) is one that afflicts the comfortable, and comforts the afflicted! If you are uncomfortable pray Psalm 139:23-24 (note the 6 imperatives in red) Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way. William
Lucas 16
Ironside noted, “Was there, or was there not? He definitely declared that there was.” (3) Moses, Abraham, and the prophets are real people, whereas parables never refer to specific Old Testament saints. (4) Luke does not call this a parable as he does in thirteen other clear cases of parable so designated. (5) It is narrated like a real history. (6) Parables deal with the commonplace of what is known to be true to illustrate moral lessons, and come from natural life. This does not. (7) Hades is a reality, not a figure of speech. (8) There is no reason why Jesus could not have had in mind a particular case. He is describing what took place after death in the cases of two men for the moral profit of His hearers. (9) The conversation between the rich man and Abraham does not seem to lend itself to parabolic format. (10) Even a case history, as this is, could be used in parabolic fashion to teach a precise moral truth. Middletown Bible Church - 1. It would be the only parable in the Bible that describes certain things that are outside of the realm of human experience. All the other parables talk about things that we are familiar with such as birds, seed, fields, pearls, wheat, barns, leaven, fish, etc. (see Matthew 13, etc.). This passage is different because it talks about what happens to two men after death, and this is a realm where none of us have had any personal experience. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly or spiritual significance, but Luke 16 transcends the realm of the earthly. 2. It would be the only parable in the Bible that uses a proper name (Lazarus). 3. It would be the only parable in the Bible that makes mention repeatedly of a historical person--Abraham. Moreover, this historical person actually carries on a dialogue with the rich man! Indeed, mention is also made in this parable of Moses, another historical character. What other parable speaks of real, historical persons? 4. It would be the only parable in the Bible that describes the places where the dead go (Hades, Abraham's bosom, a place of torment). 5. It would be the only parable in the Bible that makes mention of angels. Compare Matthew 13 verses 24-30, 36-43, 47-49 where angels are mentioned in the explanation of the parable but not in the parable itself. 6. If Hades is not really a place of torment then this would be the only parable in the Bible where the Lord Jesus taught error instead of truth. GOD FORBID! The Westminster Shorter Catechism surprisingly has only one answer specifically related to eternal punishment: (numbers in brackets are the Scriptures that defend the statement and are at the bottom of the page). THOUGHT - I would propose that the Church of Jesus Christ is most "on fire" with the Gospel, when the Church fully and truly grasps the horror of the unquenchable fire of Hell! Does this thought not make you want to go and share the Gospel today?! Q. 19. What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell? A. All mankind by their fall lost communion with God,[47] are under his wrath[48] and curse,[49] and so made liable to all the miseries of this life,[50] to death[51] itself, and to the pains of hell forever.[52] THOUGHT - Let's all be honest, we hate the thought that hell is a reality and even the preceding great doctrinal declarations tend to refrain from mentioning the subject to any degree, as if it were a "taboo" subject! And yet Jesus spoke frequently about Hell because He wanted men to escape its horrors by repenting and believing in Him. When we as believers get a sense of the reality of hell for the lost souls around us, this truth can serve as a powerful motivator for us to share the Gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24+ - NB: "testify solemnly", Ro 1:1+). It is my sincere prayer that God might make all of us more aware of the horrors of hell, for the express purpose of making each Christ follower more fervent and bold in the proclamation of the Gospel to all who are in imminent danger of waking up in shock like the rich man in this story! Indeed one of the greatest impacts of the truth about the eternal fire of hell, is that it should break our hearts, fill our eyes with tears and set our hearts aflame to passionately persistently proclaim the Gospel to the lost, even as the Spirit emboldens us and gives us each those precious opportunities! (Acts 4:31+, cf Paul's prison prayer - Eph 6:19-20+) I can attest to this in my own experience, for after spending many hours studying and writing notes on Lk 16:19-31 (and eternal punishment), the effect on my heart has been to cause me to have a greater desire than ever to share the good news in time to those otherwise destined to experience the bad news in eternity unless they receive by grace through faith the Gospel of peace (Eph 6:15+). Erwin Lutzer begins his book "One Minute After You Die" (borrow a copy) with this quote "Hell disappeared. And no one noticed.” With that terse observation, American church historian Martin Marty summarized our attitude toward a vanishing doctrine that received careful attention in previous generations. If you are a churchgoer, ask yourself when you last heard an entire sermon or Sunday school lesson on the topic. An article in Newsweek said, “Today, hell is theology’s H-word, a subject too trite for serious scholarship.” Gordon Kaufman of Harvard Divinity School believes we have gone through a transformation of ideas, and he says, “I don’t think there can be any future for heaven and hell.” Admittedly, hell is an unpleasant topic. Unbelievers disbelieve in it; most Christians ignore it (ED: SAD BUT TRUE!). Even the staunchly biblical diehards are often silent out of embarrassment. Hell, more than any doctrine of the Bible, seems to be out of step with our times." (One Minute After You Die" borrow a copy) (Bold added) Despite that fact, Hell is under fire, pun intended! As we begin this section, we need to understand that preaching on hell is not a popular topic but it is one that is sorely needed in the modern evangelical church (See John Blanchard's discussion below). As Buis writes "The masses of Christians in the early Church certainly believed in the doctrine of eternal punishment. Gibbon (ED: NOT A CHRISTIAN AS FAR AS I CAN DETERMINE - SEE NOTE BELOW) considered this to be one of the five most important reasons why the Gospel spread in such amazing fashion." (The Doctrine of Eternal Punishment) While Luke 16 is just a story, Jesus told it to emphasize truth and one truth that comes out is that the rich man in Hades is now motivated by his suffering to act in a sense as an evangelist to his brothers. I would submit that one of the greatest impacts of the truth about eternal fire of hell, is that one's heart is set on fire to proclaim the Gospel to the lost! I can attest to this in my own experience for spent many hours studying and writing on Lk 16:19-31 and the effect on my heart has been to cause me to have a greater desire than ever before to share the good news in time to those otherwise destined for bad news in eternity. So let me ask you, have you ever heard a sermon series or even one sermon on hell? Have you really studied this doctrine which Jesus spoke more than any other person? THOUGHT - I would propose that the Church of Jesus Christ is most "on fire" with the Gospel, when the Church fully and truly grasps the horror of the unquenchable fire of Hell! Does this thought not make you want to go and share the Gospel today?! Given the fact that America is in desperate need of a God given, Word centered, Spirit empowered, Christ exalting revival, what would be the impact in our land if there was more emphasis on the doctrine of Hell preached by pastors whose hearts were filled with compassion and whose eyes were filled with tears? What was the effect of Jonathan Edward's (biography - go to page 30) famous sermon "Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God"? This sermon on hell was used by the Holy Spirit to set ablaze the fire of revival which is known as the First Great Awakening! Read about the impact of Edward's sermon on his congregation (click here). As an aside Edwards in that sermon said "There is nothing that keeps wicked Men at any one Moment, out of Hell, but the meer Pleasure of GOD!" R. A. Torrey was correct when he said "If you in any way abate the doctrine of hell, it will abate your zeal!" J C