Worship Service October 3rd, 2010

Worship Service October 3rd, 2010 from Richard Waldschmidt on Vimeo.

Luke 16:19-31 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.' "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, Sir I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' " 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "
Some Things Are Real Important
I There Is A Real Hell II It’s Important To Listen To What The Scriptures Say
There is a debate over which is faster the human brain or a super computer. Now there are things that computers come up with quickly that our brains might struggle with. Think of counting backwards from 100 by 7s and multiplying two numbers at the same time. But the brain is much better at learning new things and adjusting a response. One example would be in the understanding of human speech. I read recently that when a computer does voice recognition like the automated phone systems- it uses something like 100 million instructions per second to the processor. That sounds impressive. However, the language processing portion of your brain is just one small part of the whole package of what our brains do. Some have estimated that the brain can process up to 10 quadrillion instructions per second. Some days it might seems like there are 10 quadrillion things going through our minds. We process everything from the grocery list and dentist appointments to why the car is making that chugging noise. Our minds bog down in the guilt we carry over not being the kind of parent we should be and we worry about how we are going to make ends meet. In the midst of all of those things going through our minds and hearts, Jesus’ words invite us to focus on what is going to matter on the day when all of that activity in our brains stops- the day we die. God’s word today points out that Some Things Are Real Important! I There Is A Real Hell II It’s Important To Listen To What The Scriptures Say About The One Who Rose From The Dead.
Imagine a teacher teaching in a classroom where there are some students who are listening intently while others are in the back turning up their noses, making faces and sneering at what the teacher is saying. That’s the situation we find in God’s Word today. Jesus is teaching his disciples but the Pharisees are listening in the back making faces and sneering at what he was saying. Jesus had just taught a lesson on how you cannot let worldly wealth run your life and the “Pharisees who loved money heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.” Now most teachers would toss a jeering and sneering student out of the classroom in a quick hurry. Notice that Jesus doesn’t chase these Pharisees out at the point of a lightning bolt. Instead Jesus spoke pointedly to them that “what is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.” Then after finishing up a few points with His disciples, he comes back to reinforce the lesson about setting one’s heart on the not so important things of this world. He lets them know that some things are real important.
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.” It would seem that rich man made luxury his heart’s treasure. Instead of wearing his blue jeans and khakis most days and his purple outfits with the fine linen only on special occasions, he wore his expensive fancy clothes every day. If he noticed he didn’t care about the beggar at the curb who was eyeing the crumbs and scraps from his dinners. “At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.” We might think, “well at least he had the dogs who came to lick his wounds.” It would seem though that these were not such nice dogs because the original words have the idea “worse yet, the dogs came and licked his sores” rather than “At least, the dogs licked his sores. So apparently Lazarus was in such bad shape that he did not have the strength to shoo the dogs away.
Jesus often used earthly stories with heavenly meanings to teach His disciples. When Jesus does that, it is usually pretty clear that his is using a parable. It is striking that here is not so clear that this is a parable, so it makes one wonder if Jesus is telling us about a real rich man and a real Lazarus and not just characters in a parable. I can’t think of another parable that uses names. Scripture doesn’t answer the question but Jesus does make clear that some things are real important. One of the real important things is that there is a real heaven and there is a real hell.
"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side.” God’s Word clearly teaches that it is not a matter of being rich or poor that determines one’s eternal fate. Poor people do not receive an automatic ticket to heaven. Rich people are not automatically routed onto the train to hell. Jesus said whoever believes in the Savior God sent “shall not perish but have eternal life.” So Lazarus trusted in the Savior God. Jesus also teaches that “whoever does not believe” whether rich or poor “stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” So you can almost hear the angels singing with Lazarus and at the same time you can almost hear the dull thud as the rich man lands in hell. “The rich man also died and was buried.” In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” Because he made the finer things in this life the treasure of his heart in his life on earth, the reality now hits home that there were no finer things for him to enjoy in eternity.
The devil tries to convince us that hell is not so bad. In fact he tries to push the lie that hell if it exists at all, is a party place and the devil is not such a bad guy he is more like the “Underwood canned ham” guy with red pajamas and a pointy tail. The devil spreads the lie through false teacher that hell is a place of second chances- that somehow after you have paid your dues, like a student serving a detention, that a person would be free to go out into the eternal recess of heaven. But the Bible says that hell is real. It is a real bad place, where “the fire is not quenched and the worm does not die.” The devil isn’t wearing a costume with a plastic pitch fork but instead “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” It is a place where there are no second chances.
Last week at the Pastors’ Conference at our Seminary, Pastor Spaude and I heard papers read about the revival movement early in our country’s history. One of the papers described the way the revival preachers would describe in great detail the horrors of hell with images of God holding a person over a flame. One of the difficulties in preaching a sermon about hell is that no matter how scary the imagery is, it cannot come even remotely close to the reality of how terrible life is in the place where only the fearsome punishment of the Almighty God can be seen and felt. Scripture says, “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” In our minds we tend to associate ourselves with poor Lazarus. However, all of us, regardless of our net worth, have earned that fate of the rich man every time we’ve failed with our sin blinded eyes to see the needs of the Lazarus’ we meet every day. We’ve earned hell fire for ourselves when we push God out of first place in our hearts and let our minds and lives be consumed with getting and keeping the possessions and pleasures this world has to offer.
"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, Sir I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' " 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' " For the first time we hear about the rich man being concerned about somebody else. He wants Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn his brothers. If someone rises from the dead they will listen to him. At first that seems to make sense. But stop and think, “there was someone who did come back from the dead 2,000 years ago. Did everyone listen to Jesus? Abraham makes it clear that the key is in listening to what the Scriptures say about that one who came back from the dead. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sin and not only for ours but also for the sin of the whole world.” The Scriptures speak of our Savior god who took on flesh to be our substitute. He showed perfect love, compassion and concern every single day of his life on earth in our place. He took upon his shoulders the greedy thoughts, the glances deliberately turned away from those in need and all of the misplaced priorities. Because of Jesus, God says, “Come now and let us reason together though your sins be like scarlet they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool. Those words stand even true for us even if our favorite color is purple and our closets are full of fine linen.
Because God in His grace has brought us to see what’s really important, it changes our view of those possessions. Our possessions are wonderful blessings from our God but they are not the “ be all” and the “end all” of our lives. We don’t have to worry that if we give some of those possessions away to tell others what the Scriptures say about Jesus and help those in need that Jesus will run out of ways to bless us. The Bible puts it this way, “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever!”
There is a hell. There is a real Savior. There are people who need to hear what Jesus has done to rescue them. What a wonderful way for us to help those in need! Some are in our own family, some in our background and others are around the world. Let’s look for them! God will give us the strength to help them see that some things are important!