Jesus teaches about hell (Luke 16:19-31)

 

 Jesus teaches about hell

‘We must remember that the very person who revealed most stunningly God’s love, our Lord Jesus Christ, is also the one who spoke most frequently and in most frightening words of the tragedy of the lost.  It is a dangerous thing to be more generous than God has revealed himself to be!’ (Roger Nicole).

In his book, ‘Why I am not a Christian’, the philosopher, Bertrand Russell, writes, ‘There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell.  I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.'

Jesus certainly believed in hell.  In fact, He taught about hell more than anyone else in the Bible.  He was not embarrassed or shocked about it, but He grieved at the thought that people would reject His offer of salvation and receive the consequences of that choice.  Jesus warned people about hell because He loved them.

I want to look at one of Jesus’ best-known parables on this topic—the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

Don’t let stuff keep you out of heaven

Jesus has just warned his religious opponents that it is impossible to serve both God and money (Lk. 16:13).  Now he tells them a parable of a man who lived for money and ended up in hell (Lk. 16:19-31).  Jesus calls us to put Him before everything else.  Stuff will keep us out of heaven, when stuff stops us following Jesus.  It is a terrible choice to live for what cannot satisfy and lose out on eternal joy.

This rich man had everything that money could buy.  He was a self-indulgent person who cared for no-one but himself.  He dressed in purple, which was extremely expensive, and could only be afforded by the wealthy.  He wanted people to see how rich he was!  He also wore fine linen.  He feasted every day.

At the gates of the rich man’s house lay a beggar.  He was laid there because he was too sick to walk.  He was covered in sores and longed to eat what fell from the rich man’s table.  The man in town who was best equipped to meet his medical needs didn’t even give him his scraps.  Kenneth Bailey points out that in Middle Eastern villages things were compact, so Lazarus could hear what was going on at the rich man’s banquets. In fact, the guests could not ignore Lazarus as they entered the rich man’s gate.  However, the rich man’s guard dogs showed him kindness as they licked his wounds.

Lazarus had one thing that the rich man did not have—Jesus gives him a name.  In fact, Lazarus is the only person named in any of Jesus’ parables, so his name must be significant.  The name Lazarus means, ‘the one who God helps.’  This is significant, Lazarus knows God and knows that God is for him.  What a contrast this passage is to those prosperity preachers on the television who tell you that it is always God’s will for His people to be healthy and wealthy.  Lazarus was living his best life now, and yet that life included a lot of pain.

Who would you prefer to be?

So, who would you prefer to be?  Would you prefer to live in luxury and not know Jesus, or could you enjoy Jesus even though your life involved sickness and suffering?  Where is your hope?  Is your hope in retail therapy and status or is your hope in the God who cares for you in life and who promises to bring you to His heavenly home?  

Lazarus dies, and he is taken by the angels to Abraham’s side.  In life he was carried to the rich man’s gates by his friends.  In death, it is the angels who carry him to his heavenly home.  It is not that rich men can’t go to heaven.  Abraham was a rich man who did not put his riches before God.  Abraham is also seen as the father of all who put their faith in God.  Lazarus had been rejected in life, but he is eternally accepted.

While Lazarus was probably thrown anonymously into the community pauper’s grave, the rich man subsequently dies and is buried.  No doubt it was a large funeral with many people saying kind things about him.  However, the rich man goes straight to hell.

In hell there is no repentance

It is important to notice that the rich man continues to be self-absorbed in hell. 

He looks up and sees Abraham, with Lazarus at his side.  He addresses Abraham as his father.  He had not cared to obey the Bible’s teaching on care for those in need, but he thinks that he should be in heaven because of his Jewish heritage.  Abraham may have been his genetic father, but sadly Abraham was not his spiritual father.  Jesus is very clear in teaching us that it is not religious rituals or cultural background that puts people right with God. Like Abraham we are put right with God by simply trusting in the life-transforming promises of God (Genesis 15:6). 

The rich man asks Abraham to have mercy on him, and to send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and ‘cool my tongue for me, for I am in anguish in the flame’ (24).  It is noteworthy that the rich man recognises Lazarus and knows his name.  He had not been unaware of the person who had sat at his gate.  Yet he had never done anything to help Lazarus.   Now he demands that Lazarus serves him!  There is no change of attitude in hell.

We might have hoped that the rich man would have looked at Lazarus and apologised to him, but he doesn’t even speak to Lazarus.  He doesn’t talk to people like beggars.  He simply asks that Lazarus be sent to him as a servant.  Hell is a place of regret, but not a place of repentance.  People continue in hell as they have lived—with themselves at the centre of their concerns.  If you haven’t centred your life on the person of Jesus, you might not like hell, but heaven will actually not be that appealing.

Abraham tells the rich man that a great chasm has been fixed between heaven and hell.  There is no crossing over.  We might understand why someone would want to leave hell, but why would Abraham have to mention that you cannot cross from heaven to hell?  Perhaps, because Lazarus is at Abraham’s side saying, ‘I’ll go and serve him!’

It is the hardness of our hearts that result in people going to hell

Having asked for Lazarus to be his servant he now asks Abraham to send him as an errand boy.  Send him to my father’s house—for I have five brothers (28).  The rich man is only concerned about his own people.  Even tyrants can be concerned about their family.  Abraham tells him that if they have ignored God’s word (referred to here as ‘Moses and the Prophets’) then someone coming back from the dead won’t cause them to repent. 

A number of years ago someone gave me a copy of a talk by someone who claimed to have spent twenty minutes in hell.  I was somewhat sceptical.  I knew one church that played this talk in their service.  The problem is that Jesus is saying that such a talk will be of no use in bringing people to faith.  If we reject the teaching of God not even someone coming back from the dead will change our mind.

In John’s Gospel there was another Lazarus that Jesus did raise from the dead, yet there were many who saw that amazing miracle and still refused to turn to Christ.  The reason people don’t put their trust in Jesus is not because they don’t have enough evidence.  It has a lot more to do with the hardness of our hearts and our refusal to let go of all the other things we put before God.  What the rich man had put before God was money and luxury.  We run from the light for fear our evil deeds will be exposed.

Jesus died that we could be spared hell

It is important to notice where in Luke’s gospel this story has been told.  Luke has shown us that Jesus had set his face for Jerusalem where He was going to die for His people’s sins (Luke 9:51).  He would endure hell  so that we need not.  Jesus not only warns people about hell, He experienced hell in our place.

It is not only stuff that causes people to go to hell, it is anything that we put in the place of God.  Perhaps you don’t want to follow Jesus because you are scared of what people will think.  Maybe you don’t want to follow Jesus because you are scared of what He will ask you to do.  That would be a sad mistake to make.  Jesus loves you more than any friend can, He can satisfy you more than any purchase, and He will guide your life in ways that will be for your spiritual good.  Even if that means, like Lazarus, you have to endure sickness and poverty in this life.

Heaven and hell are where the story ends

Finally, notice how final this story is.

There are those who suggest that there will be a second chance to repent after we have died.  They base this opinion on a text that has been open to a wide variety of interpretations (1 Pet. 3:19-20 and 4:6[.  The problem is that their interpretation of this text seems to contradict the clear teaching of other texts that are more straight-forward.  It is not wise to base a questionable conclusion of a very debated understanding of a text that is open to a variety of interpretations, especially if the conclusion you are reaching seems at odds with the clear teaching of other more straight-forward passages of Scripture.  The author to the Hebrews seems to exclude the idea of post death conversion when he writes that it is appointed for people to die once and then face judgement (Heb, 9:27).  The other problem is that it does not seem that people are capable of repentance after they have died (Rev. 22:11).  As we have seen in this chapter, Jesus teaches us that in hell, people may experience regret, but they do not experience a softening of heart.

Another dead end is the doctrine of purgatory.  This doctrine has a long history in the Christian church, but it is a clear contradiction of the gospel.  It is actually a teaching that takes away from the glory and completeness of Jesus’ work on the cross. 

I was at the funeral of the mother of a friend of mine.  The priest actually claimed that it was not a Christian teaching to believe that people go straight to heaven when they die.  That is a clear contradiction of what we have seen of Lazarus in this passage.  The priest said that no one could go to heaven until they had been perfected and that we could help my friend’s mother on her way through our prayers, and even in the mass that was being offered.  The priest was actually reflecting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which reads, ‘all who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation, but after death, they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.’

Yet when Jesus died, he cried ‘it is finished’ (John. 19:30).  Nothing further needed to be done to save people from their guilt.  No Christian is perfect (Phil. 3:12).  We deny the truth if we claim that we no longer sin (1 John. 1:8).  But a great exchange has taken place in the life of those who believe.  In Jesus, I am considered righteous, as His righteous life is gifted to me and as I realise that all my sin has been removed by His sacrificial death.  It is not our perfection that will get us into heaven, it is Jesus’ perfection that will take us there.  Because of Jesus the Christian no longer lives under condemnation (Rom. 8:1), and we can be assured that to depart from this life is to go and be with Christ (Phil. 1:23).    

Conclusion

So how do we answer Bertrand Russell’s objection to Jesus, that no humane person could believe in hell?  We can begin by pointing out that when we read the gospel there is no one who has compassion like Jesus.  Say what you like about Him, but you cannot deny that He is a man of love.  But love is not the only attribute of God: so is goodness.  A loving and good God cannot be indifferent to the evil that human beings do.  In fact, Jesus’ love is so strong for humanity that He gave His life for people (Gal. 2:20).  He experienced hell so that we would not need to.  Jesus speaks about hell, not to frighten people, but to lovingly warn them.  He teaches the reality of hell so that we might escape its terrors.  If we do not heed His loving warnings the fault will be entirely ours.  May God give us the courage to follow His loving example and warn people about the consequences of their choice about Jesus.

Let’s pray:

‘Lord Jesus, you were not ashamed to talk about hell.  Forgive me that at times I am embarrassed by what you taught so clearly.  Help me love people enough to bring this topic up with them.  Help me love people the way you love people.  Help people understand the gospel and have the opportunity to know your forgiveness.  Amen’.

 

Luke 18:1-8 How do you feel about the return of Jesus?

How do you feel about the return of Jesus?  I suspect many of us give it little thought.  Others may see it as something terrifying—that is how it can be portrayed in the movies.  We may have questions about it—for example how can Christ appear to the whole world at one time?  (He is God, I am sure he can sort that one out!) 

Christians should live in anticipation of the Lord’s return.  It is something that we should be looking forward to.  Think of the disciples on the day that Jesus was taken up into the clouds before their sight.  What would they have longed for more than anything else?  They would have wanted him to come straight back down and be with them again.  For the Christian the Lord’s return should not be a fearful prospect by a joyful one.

I suspect that some of us might want the Lord to delay his return.  ‘I don’t want him to come back before I get married’, ‘I would like him to delay until I see my grandchildren grow up’, ‘could he wait until after my holiday?’, ‘I want to see my grandchildren grow up first’.  How foolish we are!  How our minds are settled here on earth.  Don’t we realise that if he were to return tonight then tomorrow would be better for the Christian than anything this world has to offer?

There is, however, one legitimate reason why we might want the Lord to delay his return.  We should be praying for people to become Christians and we don’t want Jesus to return before they do.  God actually shares this concern.  Peter writes to Christians who are impatient that the Lord has not yet returned, saying, The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).  He is delaying his return so that all who will come to faith will have repented—when Jesus returns all who are going to become Christians will have turned to Christ.

Jesus will return and establish justice

The Saturday before last I was at a table quiz.  We were raising money for Claire and Alex’s trip to Uganda.  The general consensus was that Brain asked very difficult questions.  Here is my table quiz question for you this morning: what is the last prayer in the Bible?  In the second last verse of Revelation John says, Come, Lord Jesus (Rev. 22:20).  John has seen how history will unfold and the glorious future that awaits God’s people, and he says ‘Come, Lord Jesus.’ 

You may have noticed that although we are looking at the beginning of chapter eighteen our reading included the end of chapter seventeen.  The context into which Jesus speaks these words is his teaching on his second coming.  That day will be like those of Noah—people will be going about their business, eating, drinking and being married, and the judgement came and destroyed them all.  It will be like the day of Sodom and Gomorrah—people will be buying and selling, and the judgement came and destroyed them all.  When Christ is revealed—people will be going about their business ignoring God and Christ will come in judgement.  Then their will be a great division between those who have trusted Jesus and those who have refused him—on that night two will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding together; one will be taken and the other left.

After the parable Jesus explains, ‘and will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones … he will see that they get justice and quickly…’  This parable is focusing on a prayer that justice would be done.  The widow wants justice from here oppressor.  Jesus promises that God will bring about justice for his people.  While, at times, God brings about justice for his people now ultimate justice awaits his return.  Take some of the Open Doors literature and read of those being persecuted for their faith.  Christians discriminated against, marginalised, beaten, imprisoned and even killed.  In our own society people act as if Jesus is utterly irrelevant and they live as they please.  I love going to the cinema, but one of the things that saddens me there is the language that is used, in particular how Jesus’ name is used flippantly.  All these things should create in us a longing that Jesus would come again, vindicate his people, establish justice, and be recognised by all.  So we pray, ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’

If you are sitting here this morning and you are resisting Christ I hope that these verses will be a wake up call.  Have you prayed with the tax-collector ‘Lord, have mercy on me a sinner’?  Have you responded to Jesus command to take up your cross and follow him, as you submit all of you life to his loving rule?  Unless you turn to Jesus you will be condemned on the last day.  Before a perfectly holy God our sin is far worse than we imagine.  We will see that is right that he should punish us eternally for it.  Jesus died on the cross that we might be forgiven, but if we ignore his offer of grace we will pay guilt forever in Hell.

Keeping on praying until Christ returns

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.  He is teaching them about how we should live in this time when we are anticipating the Lord’s return.  We are to keep on going until the end.  We are to be a praying people.  Praying and giving up are mutually exclusive.  As one preacher points out, ‘The one sure way to give up your Christian faith is to stop praying, for praying is the expression of our personal trust and confidence in God the king.’

We have failed to fully grasp the gospel if we think that Jesus promises us an easy life.  The gospel pattern is suffering now, glory to come.  The expectation is that we will be opposed.  When we stick up our hand and say ‘I belong to Jesus’ we will be marginalised.  When we talk about the gospel we are going to be considered to be a ‘fundamentalist.’  As society moves further away from a Christian understanding of morality our views will be labelled narrow-minded, intolerant and bigoted.  We are strangers and pilgrims in this life, we are not meant to simply fit in.

So why doesn’t Christ return and end his people’s suffering?  We might be tempted to lose heart and give up praying for justice.  After all in this life God’s people are often denied justice, and we have been waiting a long time for Jesus to return and establish perfect justice.  So Jesus tells us a parable about a heartless judge and a helpless widow to encourage us.

We bring our prayer to a good God who delights to answer

I suppose we could read this parable and misunderstand what Jesus is saying.  If we ignored the verses leading up to this passage we might not realise that it is primarily concerned with Christ’s return.  We might also think that Jesus is teaching us that God is like the judge and we are like the widow.  Therefore the only way to get our prayers answered by God is to hound him until he reluctantly gives us what we want.

However, God is not like this judge.  This cruel person neither feared God nor cared about men.  God is not so much being compared with the unjust judge as contrasted to him.  The relationship the widow had with the judge is not like the relationship we have with God.  In that culture widows were amongst the most vulnerable of people.  She had no one to stand up for her to ensure she got justice.  She meant nothing to him.  Unfortunately she has an adversary—she is being denied justice, perhaps someone is denying her access to her husband’s estate.  Her only hope was pester-power.  Even though she is a ‘nobody’ to the judge, and he is not interested in justice, she persists with her request.

A woman told a Bible-teacher, ‘I don’t pray about the details of my life because I reckon the Lord Almighty has enough to do in ordering the universe.’  Perhaps she was merely using this as an excuse not to pray.  She certainly didn’t understand the sort of relationship God invites people to enjoy with him.  Unlike the widow before the unjust judge, Christians are precious to God.  Unlike the judge God is generous and delights to respond to his people.

So if a woman persisted in making her request known, to a cruel judge who considered her to be a ‘nobody’, how much more should we cry out to God day and night in the knowledge that he is good and that he cares for his people.  He will not keep putting us off?  I tell you, he will see that we get justice, and quickly.

Conclusion—

One objection remains.  If this parable is primarily about God establishing justice on the day that Christ returns, how can Jesus speak of God seeing that we get justice quickly?  We have been waiting for two-thousand years!

It is quickly in the sense that God is not delaying without reason.  The only reason he has not yet returned is because he has purposes to be fulfilled.  We have already seen that he delays his return until all those who are to become Christians have repented.  We also see a similar reason for this delay in Revelation 6.  There people who had been martyred for their faith are with God in heaven and cry out to him, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”  They are waiting for Jesus to return and bring perfect justice.  Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow-servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been completed.  The delay was because God’s purpose had yet to be fulfilled—which involved the martyrdom of some of his people.

Amazingly our crying out for justice, our praying ‘come, Lord Jesus’, has an influence on the Lord’s return.  He will come in response to our prayers.  This is part of the mystery of God’s sovereignty and our responsibility.  God will do has he planned, but it not be independent on our actions.  He is not delaying because he does not care about restoring justice, he is not delaying because he is unmoved about the suffering of his people, and he is not delaying so that we have a chance to go on that holiday or get that promotion.  He is only delaying because he has glorious purposes in this age that have yet to be fulfilled.  At the right time he will return and establish perfect justice.  However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?  He will look for are praying and awaiting his return.  We will we be among that number?

Preached in Richhill before 2011

Luke 12:13-21: ‘How to be successful’

(Preached in 2010)

I have a big event coming up on the 24^th April.  It’s my twenty year school reunion.  I have to admit that while I think I am looking forward to it I am also somewhat nervous.  It has actually motivated my long standing diet.  We all want to make a good impression.  We all want people to think that we are a success! 

What is real success?  Is success arriving at your school reunion in a big car?  Having a youthful body?  Being able to talk about your foreign travels and a fancy home?  Maybe your success is living in the reflected glow from your children’s achievements.  You success may even be that you are content and happy, and don’t care what people think.

Imagine if the man in today’s parable lived in our culture and was going to his school reunion.  It might be forty years since leaving school.  While everyone else has a decade in the office before retirement he tells people that he is retiring that summer.  People had always envied his wealth, and his wealth had multiplied.  He had invested in the right stocks, and brought and sold property at the right time.  Recently his financial advisor had pointed out that he had more than enough set aside for a luxury retirement.  What was the point of carrying on working?  He would only be earning money that he would not spend.  So he bought a large house in the country, another one in the south of France, and the yacht he always wanted.  He even planned for further down the line when his health might deteriorate, getting the best medical cover and putting aside a large amount of money to be put into care for when he becomes elderly.  This was no workaholic who spends his life toiling but never reaps the rewards.  People looked at him and said, ‘there is a man with the right idea about life!’

However, those who were staying in the hotel where the reunion was being held were disturbed in the early hours of the morning by the flashing lights of an ambulance.  The talk over breakfast was about how the man had awoken with a sharp pain in his chest.  He had realised that something was wrong and rung for assistance.  But by the time the paramedics arrived it was too late.  People couldn’t help pondering the irony of this man with his great plans that would never be fulfilled.  What did his success matter to him now? 

This morning’s passage prompts us to ponder what real success is.

Wealth does not equal success (13-15)

In Luke 12 Jesus has been speaking to a crowd of many thousands.  He was actually talking about issues of eternity.  He had warned them, ‘There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known’; ‘Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has the power to throw you in hell’; he has spoken of the Son of man, to whom the future belongs.

Then someone from the crowd says to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’  It was common practice for rabbis to sort out such family disputes.  Did this man reckon his inheritance was more important to him than the things that Jesus had been talking about?  Did the here and now mattered more to him than the ever after, like it does to many people?

Jesus warned the crowd “Watch out!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

The Bible is not actually against wealth and possessions.  They can be a blessing and ought to be put to good use.  However, we are warned about the deceitfulness of wealth—we can fall into the trap of living for things and believing that what we buy can satisfy our longings.  We are told that the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil.  We can allow what we own, and want to own, get in the way of the most important thing in life—God and our relationship with him.  Be careful we don’t make possessions an idol.

If you’re a parent, what sort of understanding of success are you giving your children?  Are they being driven to succeed in studies because they think that is where their worth will be found?  Do they believe that it matters that they have an impressive job because that is how success is measured?  Do you put them under pressure to find a partner and have kids, as if that is the only route to fulfilment?  Do they understand that while their hobbies and sports may bring them joy their achievements in these don’t really matter in light of eternity?  We need to teach our young people that life will ultimately be measured in terms of our relationship with God.

Don’t live as a ‘practical’ atheist (16-20)

The film Invictus is based on the 1995 South African victory in the Rugby World Cup.  In it Morgan Freeman (playing Nelson Mandela), tells Matt Damon (playing Springbok captain Francois Pienaar) how he was inspired by a poem entitled Invictus.  The last lines of this poem read, ‘I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.’  Interestingly this poem, written in 1875, is the fourth in a series of poems entitled Life after Death.  However, when it comes to life after death we are not the master of our fate or the captain of our soul.  It is God who has determined our days on this earth and he will decide our destination for eternity.

In response to the man’s question Jesus tells a parable.  He is speaking to a crowd that would have been made up mostly of subsistence farmers so they would have recognised the story’s central figure as a success.  Here is a rich farmer who was blessed by a good crop and now has enough to sit back and enjoy life.  His philosophy in life: ‘Take life easy: eat, drink and be merry.’ 

I want to suggest that this figure was a ‘practical atheist’.  By calling him a ‘practical atheist’ I am not saying that he didn’t believe that God existed.  He may have been a regular at his local synagogue.  But when it came to things he viewed as important God was not allowed shape them.  He had a philosophy of life centred solely on him.  God was not in his plans.

I think that we can act like this godless man.  I think that even those who profess to be followers of Christ sometimes act like ‘practical atheists.’  We set our goals, we spend our time, we form our relationships, we make our priorities as if God is not watching and he is not the one we are living to please.  Our lives are to be centred on Christ.  There ought to be no part of our lives that are not placed under his loving rule.  Our relationship with him should be shaping how we view all things and what we see as important. 

In the end it doesn’t really matter who thinks you are a success or who says you are a failure.  In the end the only verdict that will matter will be God’s.  What is God’s verdict on this ‘successful’ man?  God calls this man a fool!  Apparently the Greek word translated ‘fool’ means ‘to be without thought.’  This man had thought about how to maximise his wealth, he had planned how to enjoy his possessions, he had figured out what he would do for himself, but he had not thought about something far more important, he hadn’t thought about his relationship with God.  ‘Have you really considered life beyond the grave?’ ‘Have you planned for eternity?’ ‘Have you sought God’s forgiveness?’ ‘Do you live with Jesus as your king?’  If you haven’t seriously considered these things then God thinks you are a fool.

Woody Allen once quipped, ‘It’s not that I am afraid to die; I just don’t want to be around when it happens.’  This joke could not disguise his fear.  In one interview he said, ‘The fundamental thing behind all motivation and all activity is the constant struggle against annihilation and death.  It is absolutely stupefying in its terror, and it render’s anyone’s accomplishments meaningless.’  Death renders this man’s success as worthless.  Someone asked of the deceased, ‘how much did they leave?’  The answer came that they had left everything! 

Death is the great leveller.  It won’t matter how far up any career ladder you went.  It won’t matter if you had a title before your name and many letters after it.  It won’t matter if you received an obituary in a national paper, or whether there were only two people at your funeral.  All that will matter will be whether God was at the centre of your life!   

You need to be rich (towards God) if you are going to be a success (21)

Don’t let me put you off paying your pension contributions.  I am not trying to discourage you from investing something for the future—Caroline and I put a little bit away every month ourselves.  But if that is where your security is then you are a fool.  If you have given thought to you retirement before you die and haven’t prepared for eternity after you die, then you are a fool. 

After the parable Jesus pronounces that, “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God.”  You need to be rich (towards God) if you are going to be a success.  But how can we rich towards God—how can we be eternally successful?

By doing what the man in the parable failed to do: by being on our guard against all kinds of greed—our priorities can be seen by what we do with our money; by realising that a person’s life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions—our property, our bank account, our job status and many of our achievements have no bearing on who we are in God’s eyes; by giving thought to life beyond the grave and living with God in the centre of our plans and ambitions.  The person who is wise in God’s eyes, and who is rich in his estimation, has said with the tax-collector ‘have mercy on me a sinner’ and having received God’s forgiveness lives in grateful obedience to their Saviour.  Indeed in how they live they are storing up for themselves treasure in heaven.

This richness towards God was demonstrated in the life of the evangelist and preacher David Watson, who died of cancer in 1984.  Listen to his outlook on death (and compare it to the bleak assessment of Woody Allen):

When I die, it is my firm conviction that I shall be more alive than ever, experiencing the full reality of all that God has prepared for us in Christ.  Sometimes I have foretastes of that reality, when the sense of God’s presence is especially vivid.  Although such moments are comparatively rare they whet my appetite for much more. The actual moment of dying is still surrounded in mystery, but as I keep my eyes on Jesus I am not afraid.  Jesus has already been through death, and will be with us when we walk through it ourselves.  In those great words of the Twenty-Third Psalm: 'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou art with me ...'

A life centred on God and lived in light of eternity.  That is true success.  That is success that will last for eternity.

Luke 10:25-37 ‘Love doesn’t earn eternal life, but it does demonstrate we have it’

How good were you at showing love in the last week?  If you are living in a house with other people have you been consistently considerate and caring?  If you go to a place of work would your colleagues say that you went out of your way to show them kindness?  When you watched the news and saw people suffering were you moved with compassion?  If someone wronged you were you quick to forgive?  Were you kind in how you spoke about people?  As you drove in your car were your courteous and patient? 

The story of the compassionate Samaritan is one of Jesus’ most loved parables.  I think that it does a couple of things when we read it.  It reminds us how shallow our love has been—this man crosses boundaries, takes risks and suffers cost for the sake of another.  When we think of this sort of love, and we think of how weak our love is, we are brought again to pray, ‘have mercy on me a sinner.’  We also see something of the love we are to have as Jesus’ followers.  While we may not love perfectly, if our faith is real it should be making us more loving.

1.  Only the naïve think they can earn eternal life (25-29)

An expert of the law stood up to test Jesus.  He wants to catch Jesus out.  Perhaps Jesus will make some claim to be the Messiah and get himself on the wrong side of the authorities.  Maybe Jesus will contradict the Old Testament law and so be exposed as a theological light-weight.  ‘Teacher … what must I do to inherit eternal life?’

We might see a problem in this man’s question.  His emphasis is on what I must do.  The Apostle Paul writes, it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God—not by works, so that no-one can boast (Eph 2:8-9).  We don’t earn eternal life, it is a gift.

Jesus turns the question back on the expert.  What does the Law say?  How do you read it? The man answers, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’  It’s a good answer.  These commands sum up the heart of the Old Testament law. Jesus declares, ‘You have answered correctly … Do this and you will live.’ 

The problem is that no one lived up to the perfect demands of the Old Testament law.  The law exposed their need for mercy.  However this man wanted to justify himself.  He had not humbled himself and admitted his moral bankruptcy.     

If, like that religious expert, you want to earn eternal life you will have to reduce God’s demand for holiness to something manageable and fool yourself into believing that you have attained it.  It is interesting that the expert does not focus on the first command.  Can any person really claim that they have perfectly loved God with all their heart, soul, strength and mind?  That certainly exposes my need for mercy!  This religious expert thinks he can gloss over this command.  As for the second command, he wants to have it interpreted as easily as possible.  ‘Who is my neighbour?’ ‘Who do I have to love, and who do I not need to care about?’  I think he expected that Jesus would say that he only needs to love his fellow Israelites and he believed he had done that.

Many people in our society believe that they can earn eternal life.  They think that God looks on them and says ‘Well done!  I see that your friends think you are a decent person.  You have never been in much trouble with the police.  You have even given some money to charity.  As for the fact that you attend church; surely that is above and beyond what most people do.’  What a terrible shock they are in for!  The Bible’s verdict is that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  No-one can justify themselves.

Jesus tells this man a story that shows how God demands an all-embracing love.  It accused the religious people of that day of not even fulfilling their narrow interpretation of this command.  He challenges sectarian bigotry.  He highlights our need for mercy.    

2.  Jesus-like love is practical, risk-taking and costly (30-37)

One night, when I was working in Dungannon, I could not sleep.  I felt oppressively lonely.  Of course friends don’t want to be woken for a chat in the small hours of the morning.  But I went to make a phone call.  I started to ring the Samaritans.  Although I stopped before I dialled the last number.  It doesn’t surprise us to think of someone called a Samaritan being portrayed in a positive light.  I know that there is at least one person in our congregation who has volunteered with the Samaritans.  They do a valuable work.

However, Jesus’ listeners would have resented a Samaritan being used as a positive example.  Jews considered Samaritans to be racial and religious half-castes.  The Samaritans had set up their own temple in Mount Gerazim in 128 BC.  The Jews responded by burning it down.  A couple of years before Jesus was born a group of Samaritans had broken into the temple in Jerusalem at Passover time and scattered human bones around the place and so defiling it.  Jews and Samaritans hated each other.  No Jew would have thought of portraying a Samaritan in a good light.

I hate the attitude you sometimes hear about Catholics.  People have said to me things like, ‘I have no problems with Catholics, but you could never trust one.’  It lumps all Catholics together and assumes Protestants are somehow superior.  Such people could never stomach it if Jesus had told a parable where it was a Catholic who set the example to follow.

The story involves a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.  That 17 mile journey was literally a downward road.  Jerusalem was 2,700 feet above sea level, while Jericho was 820 feet below.  If there had been ‘News at Ten’ in those days the scene that Jesus portrays might have been a regular feature.  This road was notorious.    Jesus’ listeners would not have been surprised to hear of a man beaten, stripped naked, robbed, and left to die on that road.

A priest happened to being going down the road in the same direction and saw the man.  Here was a man we might have expected to help.  This man knew the command to love your neighbour as yourself.  What does this religious person do?  He passes by on the other side.  His religion does not lead him to action.  Then a Levite too comes down the road.  The Levites’ job was to help the priests—especially in providing music and ensuring temple security.  Again we have a pillar of the religious establishment who knew what the law commanded him to do but does not do it.  Their religion was all in the head but didn’t impact their attitude towards others.  At the Irish Bible Institute, where David is studying, they talk about ‘head, heart, hands’.  Our knowledge of the Word is to shape our thinking, stir our emotions, and result in a changed lifestyle.

But a Samaritan comes along, sees the man, and takes pity on him.  I read that the only other person the word translated ‘take pity on’ is used of in the gospels is Jesus.  The Samaritan is acting with Jesus-like compassion.  This is the sort of love Jesus’ followers should be imitating.  The Samaritan doesn’t see a Jew, he doesn’t see an enemy, he sees someone in need and he is moved to do something.  He shows a love which is willing to be inconvenienced—he puts the man on his donkey, thus slowing himself down and making himself more vulnerable to bandits.  It is a love that is practical.  Sometimes it is easier to write a cheque for a foreign charity than go out of our way and spend time with a lonely neighbour.  It is a love that is costly—he comes back to the inn-keeper the next day, pays to have the man looked after and offers to reimburse him for any extra expense.

Jesus answered the question ‘who is my neighbour?’  ‘Anyone in need is my neighbour.  There are no religious, racial, or social limitations’ (Melvin Tinker).  The expert in the law had tried to justify sectarian bigotry while simultaneously satisfying his smug religious self-righteousness.  Jesus asks him, ‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?’  Now the teacher of the law, who had approached Jesus in order to catch him out, is being put in the uncomfortable position.  He does not seem to be able to utter the words ‘the Samaritan’, and replies, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’  Jesus tells that man, ‘Go and do likewise.’

3.  Love is a sign that we have eternal life

The parable exposed that the expert in the law had failed the law.  He too was guilty of sin.  He had interpreted the command to love his neighbour too narrowly.  Indeed it is implied that he wouldn’t even lived up to his watered-down understanding of this command.  Like all of us he needed mercy.  If you are still trying to earn eternal life don’t be so naïve.  Swallow your pride and accept your need for mercy.  It is only by grace through faith that we can be saved.

If you have placed your trust in Jesus and received God’s mercy then let’s take Jesus’ words ‘Go and do likewise’ for ourselves.  Love is a fruit of being saved.  We don’t earn our salvation through loving people, but we do demonstrate our salvation through loving them.  In the parable of the sower the person who responds to the word lives a fruitful life.  The Christian’s confidence is not based on being able to name the day and hour we prayed the prayer; the Christian’s confidence is based on a life that is being transformed by Jesus.  If we are known as a gossip, if we are slow to forgive, if we have a critical spirit, if we are not moved by compassion when people hurt, then we may have reason to doubt whether we have truly been converted.

A friend witnessed a senior figure in a workplace giving out to a junior colleague.  The man showed little mercy to the young woman.  He shouted at her and was unrestrained in his language.  After giving this dressing down, the senior figure went to his office.  My friend needed a question answered and it was suggested that he ask that senior figure.  He knocked on the door and a reply came to enter.  What surprised my friend was to find this man with his Bible reading notes out having a quiet time.  His actions towards the younger colleague didn’t fit with his claim to be a Christian.  Such behaviour might cause one to wonder if the man’s faith is actually genuine.  Do our attitudes towards others show that our faith is real?

So who is testing our love at the moment?  Are we finding it difficult not to be sharp towards our spouse?  Do we have an insensitive and demanding boss?  Are there people who have done things to us that you find hard to forgive?  Would we rather stick to our own type of people and not reach over cultural boundaries?  Are we willing to risk rejection and share the good news of the gospel?  ‘Lord, have mercy on us for the many ways we have failed to love, and work within us to produce Jesus-like compassion.’

(Preached in Richhill Methodist before 2011)

Luke 14:25-35 ‘The Cost of Discipleship’

How would you respond to someone who says, ‘Christianity is simply a crutch for the weak?’  I think it’s a ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

‘Yes, I agree with you Christianity is a crutch for the weak.  It is forgiveness for the guilty; it is wholeness for the broken; it is hope for the despairing; it is purpose for the aimless; it is life for the dead; and, it is acceptance for the alienated.  But then the Bible says that the whole world is guilty, broken, hopeless, lacking purpose, spiritually dead, and needing to be restored to God.  The difference between people is not that some are weak and others are not.  It is rather that some accept their spiritual need, while others are too proud or ignorant to acknowledge it.’ 

On the other hand we might reply: ‘No, Christianity is not a crutch for the weak.  It is a life of challenge.  Which is easier, to be one of the crowd or to put up your hand and say “I belong to Christ”?  Is it easy to tell a world that they stand condemned before God and that their only hope is Jesus?  Wouldn’t it be simpler to live for status and possessions, rather than seeking to please God in the everyday of life?  Isn’t it hard to be labelled a “fundamentalist” when you explain that Jesus says that he is the only way to God?  Christianity is not simply a crutch for the weak because many look at the cost of following Christ and walk away because they believe that he asks too much of them.’

This morning’s passage begins by telling us that large crowds were travelling with Jesus, but he knew that many had a merely superficial interest in him.  Perhaps they hoped that he would be a political messiah who would restore their nation’s fortunes.  They wanted him on their terms to fulfil their agenda.  So he challenges them to think about the cost of being one of his people.  Maybe you have been swept along by the Christian youth culture, or you come to church because you like the sense of community, it could be that you are here because it seems the respectable thing to do.  But have we really thought about the cost involved in following Jesus?

We must love Jesus more than we love everyone else (26)

Jesus’ first challenge sounds shocking.  “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.”  What are we to make of these words?

He is using a Hebraic way of speaking that compares two things by contrasting them.  In other words he is saying, ‘your love for me is to be such that by comparison it makes your love for your family merely look like hatred.’  In Matthew the same principle is put like this: ‘anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me’ (Matthew 10:37).

How can we know we love Jesus in this way?  By our obedience to him!  Jesus taught, ‘if you love me you will obey what I command’ (John 14:15).  We are to seek to please him above pleasing anybody else.  A young adult tells his parents that he wants to serve Christ overseas. ‘You can’t do that we would miss you too much.’ ‘Mum, dad I will miss you too, but I believe I should serve Christ in this way.’  The kids really want to go on an overseas holiday, but when you look at your accounts you realise the only way you could afford to go is by reducing your giving to missions—is the kids getting their way more important than a commitment towards gospel work?  Supposing spouse wants you to do something Jesus not approve, who will you please?  The phone goes, ‘tell them I’m out.’  Would Jesus want you to lie?

A couple in England became Christians in mid-life.  Their grown up children were embarrassed by this.  The children gave their parents an ultimatum: ‘mum, dad, it is either us or Christianity, which will it be?’  They chose Christ and as a result they did not see, or were not spoken to, by their children. 

In London Caroline and I met a Christian from Egypt.  He couldn’t return to his family because his life was under threat from them.  He hadn’t spoken or heard from them for years.

We must let Jesus shape our ambitions (27)

And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.  If you saw someone in first-century Palestine, being escorted by Roman soldiers, and the beam of a cross over their shoulders you would have no doubts about what was taking place.  That person is going to their death.  Crucifixion was a humbling way to die.  It must have been shocking for the crowd to hear Jesus challenge them to follow him in this way.  German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his book ‘The Cost of Discipleship’, “When Christ calls a person he bids him or her, die”.

Sometimes we see someone with an illness or a difficult relationship and exclaim, ‘well, that is the cross they have to bear.’  This is not how Jesus uses the term.  Our cross is not something that we have to put up with because of the circumstances of life.  Our cross is what we take up because we follow Jesus.  It is the self-denial that Jesus commands from each of his people.  To follow him we must deny our own self-centredness.

This includes having Jesus shape our ambitions.  Ambition is not necessarily wrong—it is simply the desire to succeed.  But our desire should be to succeed in pleasing Christ.  Are we ambitious to grow in holiness?  Are we ambitious to become more confident in sharing our faith?  Are we ambitious to becoming better at praying?  Are we ambitious to be more humble?  Are we ambitious to be more familiar with God’s Word?  Are we ambitious to have Jesus show his compassion through us?  Are we ambitious to become more like Christ in character?

We must count the cost (28-33)

Then Jesus tells the crowd two parables.  In the first a farmer thinks about building a tower for storage purposes.  In the second a king thinks about whether he is capable of winning a war.  If they did not calculate what was required the farmer would end up losing face as people say ‘he began to build but could not finish’, and the king would be responsible for the death of his soldiers. 

There are three words that are common to both these parables, ‘first sit down.’  Sit down and do the maths.  Count the cost!  In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.  One commentator writes, ‘He wants [people] to count the cost and reckon all lost for His sake so that they can enter the exhilaration of full-blooded discipleship.’  There can be no such thing as a half-hearted allegiance to Jesus. 

Are we willing to follow Jesus when the crowd is mocking those who are Christians?  Are we willing to have him tell us what is morally right and wrong?  If you want to blend in with the crowd then Jesus isn’t for you.  If you don’t want to move outside your comfort zone then stay away from Christ.  If you would rather not have a cause to die for then don’t listen to the gospel.  Sadly, the Christian landscape is littered with half-constructed buildings, and the corpses of defeated armies—of people who set out with the right intention but packed it in when they found that the going is difficult!

The test of whether we are taking these words seriously will be seen in the day to day of our life.  The Christian writer Oswald Chambers wrote that ‘drudgery is the touchstone of Christian character’.  He explained, ‘It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God; but we have not.  We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things, to be holy in the mean streets, among mean people, and this is not learned in five minutes.’  This passage is not simply about heading off to be a missionary amongst some unreached tribe.  This is about how we live with our family, how we approach our work, how we relate to our neighbours, how we treat people in this church, and what we do when we are on our own.

We must be different from the world around us (34-35)

Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?  It is fit neither for the soil nor the manure pile, it is thrown out.  We’ll never get any hassle if we chose to blend in with the crowd.  But Jesus has called us to be distinct.  The apostle Paul talks about shining as stars in a crooked and depraved generation (Philippians 2:15).  Jesus has given us a new set of values to live by.

The Christian who refuses to partake in conversation when it turns to gossip; the Christian teenager who doesn’t drink because they are under-age; the Christian student who refuses to get drunk; the young man who seeks to be pure in a sex-mad society; the Christian worker who won’t neglect family and church commitments simply to climb the career ladder; the Christian friend who risks a friendship to warn a wandering Christian of their spiritual danger; the Christian pupil who is going to be laughed at when they admit they follow Jesus; the Christian neighbour who risks rejection when the introduce Jesus into the conversation—all being different in obedience to Christ.  Faith makes us different, and if we are no different than the world we live in then our faith is less than useless.

Conclusion:  The cost of saying ‘no’!

Jesus commands the sort of allegiance that people would have thought should be reserved for God alone.  This is God the Son who calls them to follow him!

Superficial Christianity is not Christianity.  When Jesus invites us to follow him he bids us to come and die.  It has been said, ‘Jesus will not be Lord at all if he is not Lord of all’ and ‘we cannot have him as Saviour if we won’t have him as Lord’.  I wonder if many of that crowd turned around and went home after Christ spoke these words.  Do we think the cost of following of Jesus is too high?

But then think of the cost of not following Jesus!  In Christ alone is forgiveness of sin—do we want to hold on to our guilt?  In Christ alone is the way to the Father—do we want to remain apart from the one who invites us to know him as ‘Abba’.  In Christ alone is fullness of life—don’t we want a purpose worth dying for?  In Christ alone is the promise of the new heaven and new earth—do we want to spend eternity separated from his goodness and love, in hell?

Finally, suppose we realise that accepting the free grace, mercy, love and life of God is worth more than our life, but we fear we will not be able to live up to his demands.  Take heart!  The Scriptures are clear that we are not left alone to follow him.  God will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Cor. 10:13); he is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy (Jude 24); he who began a good work in your will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:6); when we fail him, Christ’s blood goes on purifying us from all sin (1 John 1:7); the Holy Spirit has been given to us transforming us into the likeness of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18); Jesus will be with his people to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20).  The one who calls us promises that he will enable us!  In full-blooded relationship with him we will find our peace and joy!