Sermon on Rich Man and Lazarus

You Only Got One Life, Choose Rightly

Luke 16:19-31

•  Speaking to pharisees and his disciples
• Explaining the kingdom of God
  • Loving God and loving neighbor
• More than anything like many of the parables He is using them to place a large mirror in front of us so that we can see ourselves clearly
  • Then He is standing by us as we look in the mirror giving narration on what our life, our words, our thoughts, our behavior and most importantly our hearts should be like
  • Today the mirror is on the rich man, but as we will find out, even though most of us aren’t rich in here, this text will speak to us also
  • That being said, lets look at the mirror

The Rich Man and Lazarus Sermon Outline

First walk through the passage as the original listeners and then draw some application for ourselves.

What is the text about?

• This man was rich (19)
• This man was mercilessly aware of the presence of Lazarus (19)
• Lazarus was in a desperate desperate situation (20)
  • Poor, sores, dogs, hungry
• It seems that the rich man didn’t even allow Lazarus to have the crumbs (21)
• Lazarus turned out to be righteous, and the rich man wicked (22-23)
• There seems to be self awareness in the grave (24)
• There are no appeals, judgement is final (26)
• Jesus is saying, my Word is sufficient to believe (31)
• For the original hearers, the disciples, the pharisees, those following Jesus they are continuing to hear the the themes of Jesus preaching of the kingdom:
  • Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
  • Loving your neighbor as yourself
    • Mark 12:31 You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
  • And warning the rich of this world that their riches mean nothing to God and mean nothing in the scope of eternity 
    • Mark 8:36  36For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
    • Luke 6:24-25 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.

 

I believe this text is just as relevant for us today in the year 2021 as it was 2000 years ago as we think through our lives and pleasing God with them.

I want us to ask ourselves 3 questions based on the text today:

 

1. Is God our greatest treasure or our stuff? 
   1. Always a good question in our 21st century, 1st world, western culture
      1. Jobs, bank accounts, addresses, retirement accounts, affiliations, toys, disposable income
      2. We can be distracted and drift away from God as our first love and our greatest treasure.
   2. Parable of the treasure hidden in a field
   3. Matthew 6:19-21 (lay treasures….where your treasure is….)
   4. Ask yourself is God your greatest treasure?  If not, figure out what is and move it behind in the pecking order mentally and practically.
2. Are we loving our neighbor? 
   1. Hint-is anyone at your gate?
   2. Matthew 25:31-46
   3. Talk about there is always someone at the gate of your life that you can be ministering to.
      1. Physical, emotional, certainly spiritual
3. Are we considering eternity?
   1. Next life is greater in importance than this life
      1. This life is short.  Anyone that is on the back 4th of their life can testify to this.  
         1. The paradox is that even though this life is short, it is what we do in this life that determines eternity
         2. What makes this an even weightier truth is that we do not know when this life will be over, but we do know that the next life is for-ever.
         3. Joshua 24 Choose this day whom you will serve!
            1. Rich man chose the riches of this life and his clothes and his comfort
            2. Psalm 17:13b-15 captures this choice between God and stuff perfectly
               1. Lazarus didn’t have anything. But he had God.  Richman had everything. But he didn’t have God.  Which one is better in your eyes?