(This is a full sermon prepared for this coming Sunday, I apologise for it's length.)
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and
fine linen and lived in luxury every day.
20 At his gate was
laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat
what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came
when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man
also died and was buried. 23 In hell, where he
was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his
side.
24 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.’
25 “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. 26 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.’
27 “He answered,
‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, 28 for I have five
brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of
torment.’
29 “Abraham replied,
‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “‘No, father
Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will
repent.’
31 “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 many this is one of the more difficult and confronting
passages of the New Testament.
Is this simply a parable, with only fiction regarding the
characters and setting? Or is there truth in the story. If it is a warning
parable, who is being warned?
Who do the characters represent? What can we take away for
us today from this teaching of Jesus?
To begin with I want to describe the setting within Luke.
Chapter 15, prior to this chapter, is one of the most loved
chapters of the New Testatment.
Here we find the deeply moving story of the prodigal son.
Though it seems simply a story told by Jesus to explain a
truth, many over the years have taken the story to heart as though it were
factual. And who can truly say? The reality of the relationships and actions
are irrefutable.
Chapter 15 deals with many issues of the lost being found,
starting with the lost coin, then the lost sheep and then the lost son. These
teachings are given in the context of the Pharisees and teachers of the law
being critical of Jesus association with Tax collectors and sinners. The
stories imply that there is great hope for the Tax collectors and sinners, but
are critical of the Pharisees and teachers of the law.
If we identify with sinners, then there is hope also for us.
Chapter 16 then presents us with difficult teaching. Firstly
of the shrewd manager, who, for self preservation, undercuts his masters
debtors to gain favour when he is jobless, finishing unexpectedly, with the
famous teaching that you cannot serve both God and money. Then a small
avalanche of issues are mentioned in brief, including the issue of not a single
stroke of a pen being removed from the law. Following this is his teaching on
divorce and adultery, which has no marital unfaithfulness clause mentioned in
Luke.
We then come to todays passage on Luke 16:19-21 The Rich Man
and Lazarus.
Verse 19
The Rich Man is not named. What Jesus describes is that
every day he feasts sumptuously, or lives in luxury, depending on which version
you read. Much like most of us in Australia.
He had so much food that scraps would fall from his table.
In Australia, our scraps end up in the garbage. I am certain
that our scraps would be considered good nutrition in some parts of the world.
Verse 20 states that at the rich man’s gate was laid a
beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores.
There are a number of points I would like to make here.
Firstly Lazarus was laid at his Gate.
Some versions say stretched out, others say he lay at the gate.
It seems to me that Lazarus was not in a good state of
health, and the implication is that someone else or a number of other people
laid him there. But it is possible he dragged himself there. The sores may
represent injury, like the man who was attackd by robbers and helped by the
good Samaritan in Luke 10. Or illness, such as leprosy, or scurvey or some
other skin break down from lack of nutrition and care.
It is not uncommon in other countries, that beggars are
placed at certain strategic points by others, where they are most likely to
gain some charity from passers by. Certainly if you visit the city of Sydney,
there you will find on the footpath, at crowded places, people with bowls
hoping for gifts.
The famous story of the paralytic in Luke chapter 5,
describes men carrying a paralytic to Jesus. When they couldn’t get in to the
house the usual way, because of the crowd blocking the entrance, they famously lowered
him down through the roof.
These men must have cared for the paralytic and knew that
Jesus had power to heal. It is interesting that what Jesus actually did was
forgive his sins.
But in this story, Lazarus was laid at the gate of the Rich
man.
Who put him there, we don’t know, but as we view this story
from a distance, would it be too much to suggest that God put him there?
Who believes, like me, that it is God who places certain
people in our paths in life? Our parents, our friends, our spouses to be, our
children, our employers, our enemies (so that we can love them). Ephesians goes
to the extraordinary length to state that God even prepares our good works in
advance for us to fulfil.
Eph 2:10* For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
The next question is, if God places Lazarus at the Rich mans
gate, WHY does he do so?
The first answer is, do we actually have a right to ask God
why?
He is the potter, we are the clay.
The second part of this answer is to remind us that
everything God does is for the good of those who love him. Even Joseph
proclaims to his brothers, that when he was thrown in to prison and forgotten
for years and years, they (the brothers) intended it for evil, but God intended
it for good.
Genesis50:20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it
for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
But getting back to Lazarus, whoever put him there, felt
there was plenty of food to go around, and therefore Lazarus should benefit
easily from some of the fall-off.
It was a Jewish principle in the Old Testatment, that when
the people of God harvested their crops, they would not be ultra greedy, they
would leave the “gleanings” for the poor and needy. You know, the corners of
the paddock where the header can’t quite reach, or the smaller fruit trees on
the edge of the paddock.
Leviticus 19:9-10 “‘When you reap the harvest of your land,
do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your
harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that
have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.
So it wasn’t unheard of for a beggar to benefit from the
Rich mans bounty.
BUT there is a less obvious answer, which makes more sense
as you read further.
Maybe it was for the sake of the rich man that the beggar
was placed at his gate?
God knew who was more needy, and from the reading of the
whole passage, it seems to me that the Rich man was more needy, and in most
danger, and that this beggar named Lazarus possibly held the key for redemption
of the Rich man.
But unfortunately there was a chasm fixed between the
Beggar, and the Rich man.
OK you might think I’ve skipped forward some verses. The chasm
I refer to was called a gate. But as far as Lazarus was concerned, it was
uncrossable.
Yes, Dogs were able to come to Lazarus and lick his sores. Clearly
they had more mercy than the Rich man. As implied by the word “Even”.
The rich man on the other hand seemed to take no notice of
Lazarus, after all, he had made his bed, he could lay in it. It is so easy for
us to justify our lack of love.
I imagine the dogs ate well from the food that fell from the
rich man’s table, that Lazarus longed to eat. In Mark 7:26 the Syrophonecian
woman asked Jesus to heal her daughter. Jesus was unwilling, comparing her to the
dogs, stating without shame, that it would be wrong to give to the dogs the
food reserved for the children of Israel. But she provoked him with her faith
saying that even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the table, Jesus recognised
her great faith and healed her daughter. Jesus cannot resist true faith.
So the dogs, if they belonged to the rich man, were able to
get in and out of the property despite the closed gate (like my dogs)
But as far as Lazarus was concerned, the gate was an
unsurmountable chasm. And the rich man was unwilling to help.
Did the rich man know Lazarus was there?
The answer is clearly yes. Firstly we read that Lazarus
longed to fill his stomach with the scraps that fell from the rich mans table.
This implies that Lazarus could see these scraps, and if Lazarus could see the
scraps, the Rich man could see Lazarus.
Secondly, in the more horrific part of this passage, the Rich man
recognizes and names Lazarus from a distance.
So although no mention is made of any acknowledgement of
Lazarus by the Rich man in the start of this passage, it is clear that the Rich
man was aware of Lazarus and chose to ignore him and his plight.
Was he too busy, did he have a personal grudge against him,
was he sick of beggars taking advantage of him, was he the prodigal brother who
despite returning to the father and being welcomed back, after the father died,
was banished from the property by his jealous angry brother? (I made that up)
We don’t know. What we do know is that the implied lack of mercy on the part of
the rich man towards Lazarus seems to work strongly against him after his
death.
Verse 22 states, “the time came
when the beggar died.”
Was the Rich man finally
relieved? No more groaning beggar at the gate?
Should we ever feel relief when
someone dies?
Let me give some unrelated examples.
Is there relief when a hardened
murderer in America undergoes the death sentence?
Is their relief when Saddam
Hussein, or Bin Laden are killed?
Is there relief when an unwanted
child is aborted?
Is there relief when someone
suffering from a terminal illness finally takes their last breath?
As we know, euthanasia is a hot
topic at the moment, and Australian society seems to be welling towards the
legalisation of euthanasia, having just succeeded in the debate over same sex
marriage. Like the builders of the tower of Babel, the sky does not seem at all
the limit to modern day, western society.
So Lazarus may have groaned with
pain, and hunger, or he may have been silent, we don’t know, but the time came
when he died, and he was no longer at the gate.
Who took him away?
According to Jesus, it was the
angels.
And they took him to Abraham’s
side, or Abraham’s bosom.
That place is a special place of
intimacy, as close as anyone could be to another, eg a husband and wife. A babe
with its nursing mother.
If angels carried him away, maybe
it was the angels that had laid Lazarus at the Gate of the Rich man, for the
sake of both the rich man and Lazarus, but after he died, they took him to
Abraham.
If the Rich man felt any relief,
it didn’t last long, just like all of us, he came to the end of his life and
died.
But it seems the angels had
little to do with the Rich man after he died.
He may have been able to afford
purple linen, fine clothes, and lashings of fine food, but his money could not
buy him an angel train to heaven after death.
He had served Money, not God.
The rich man died and was buried.
And he was in Hell.
Jesus mentions hell several times
in the gospels. He warns that this place is a place of weeping and gnashing of
teeth. He uses those exact words at least 7 times.
In Revelations 21, we read that
God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, if we are with him in Heaven, but
in hell there is crying, without consolation, and gnashing of teeth which implies
frustration, anger, despair, regret, guilt, shame. And pain, I know of people
who have worn down their teeth from constant clenching from pain.
Another thought is that the
gnashing of teeth is by demons who will share that terrible place with us.
I believe that Hell is true, I
believe that Satan exists, I believe in dark forces, often masquerading as
angels and powers of good. I also believe in a literal creation, a literal Adam
and Eve, and that every word of the Bible, which I do not understand fully, is
God’s own word. And that we are extremely foolish to ignore it.
So the Rich man is in hell, and
if we read Luke chapter 13: 22 it states that those in hell will see Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, as well as many
from North, South, East and West at a great feast.
But in this passage, it simply
states that the Rich man is in Hell, in torment, and in the midst of his
torment, he can see Abraham, far away, with Lazarus close by his side.
It is interesting that the one he
can see and name, is the very one he failed to help.
Maybe this is part of the torment
of hell, that in hell we will be able to see exactly how we sinned, and have no
ability to do anything to relieve or to atone for the guilt of those sins.
That would be torment.
(Not that we ourselves can atone
for even the smallest sin.)
The rich man in Hell sees Abraham
far off, and calls out to him.
I imagine it might be like being
on opposite sides of a raging river, or a deep, deep canyon.
He calls out “Father Abraham”. This has some
implications.
Firstly it shows that he
recognises Abraham, though he had never previously met him. Secondly he calls
him father.
Who is Abraham?
In Genesis chapter 11 we read
that in ten generations from Noah, Abram (Abraham) was born. In Chapter 12 God
calls Abram (Abraham), and promises to make his name great and that he will be
the father of many or all nations, and that all who bless him will be blessed,
and all who curse him will be cursed.
Abraham is said to believe God, and that this faith of Abraham, this
trusting of who God is and what he says, was credited to him as righteousness.
Ge 15:6 Abram believed the LORD,
and he credited it to him as righteousness.
In other words, when Abraham
listens to God’s word, believes it, trusts God, which he shows by his actions,
this trusting is rewarded with the status of righteousness. Which means that
Abraham has full acceptance from God as though he had never broken any law of
God.
Abraham was a sinner. His
acceptance from God was not based on his perfect life, but on God’s willingness
to forgive and atone for all his sin. And so it is no surprise that Abraham is
in heaven. Abraham is chosen by God, and becomes the father of all who are
chosen by God, including us today. By faith we are considered the descendants
of Abraham.
The Rich man remembers his roots.
All Jews are descendants of Abraham.
Unfortunately in this case, that blood
relationship alone does not get him to heaven.
In Luke 3:7-9 we read
John said to the crowds coming out to be
baptised by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming
wrath?
Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to
yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these
stones God can raise up children for Abraham.
The axe is already at the root of the trees,
and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown
into the fire.”
Being a child of Abraham, is not
enough. To be baptized by John in preparation for Jesus coming, repentance is
absolutely necessary.
In Hell it is too late to repent.
So the Rich man sees Abraham and
calls out to him , “Father Abraham, have pity on me”. What he asks next is interesting.
Verse 24. He is in torment, and he wants relief, but he
does not ask to be released from Hell, maybe he knows that he is getting
exactly what he deserves.
Instead he recognizes Lazarus, and
he gets an idea. He just wants a drop of water on his tongue.
Why does he want a drop of water
on his tongue?
Well James, the brother of Jesus,
in his letter states
James 3:6* The tongue also is a
fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person,
sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
The tongue has more nerve endings
than almost any other part of the body, so it is particularly scary to think
that our tongues would be set on fire in hell.
So it makes sense that the Rich
mans wants some water on his tongue, he actually says he wants his tongue to be
cooled because he is “in agony in this fire”.
So he suggests to Abraham that he
send Lazarus
This is interesting.
Why send Lazarus
Is Lazarus still bottom of the
rung, someone he can order around?
Or does he have some sense that
Lazarus actually cares about him, even though he never lifted a finger to help
him?
Does he somehow sense that
Lazarus, if given an opportunity would also take pity and somehow reach into
the fire to let a drop of water trickle form his finger into his mouth?
Maybe Lazarus was laid at the
Rich mans gate, not only to possibly be fed, but to witness, and share with him
the good news of forgiveness in Jesus?
The rich man only wants a drop of
water, but in reality he could use a furphy (classic Australian water tank). Or
a row of fire engines. Why does he ask only for a drop?
Maybe he knows he does not
deserve anything more.
Maybe a drop of water is all he
could ask for in return for the many days/weeks/ months or years of ignoring
Lazarus suffering.
But more than this, when we are
desperate, sometimes we say that we would be satisfied with very little, rather
than nothing.
The prodigal son, when he was in
his misery longed for the food that the swine were eating, and thought of his
father, and thought that he would be more than happy to simply be a servant, or
a slave in his fathers household. He repented.
Lazarus himself longed only for
the scraps that came from the rich mans table.
When the woman who had the years
of haemorrhaging saw Jesus she just want to touch the edge of his cloak.
David said in Psalm 84:10 Better
is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a
doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
And the amazing thing is that
Abraham heard the rich man and replied.
“ Son.”
It is the same address that the
father of the prodigal son addresses the older brother. “My son”
Yes the Rich man was Abraham’s
son, but he was in Hell.
Abraham then explains the reality
of the current situation.
He asks the Rich man to remember
that he had good things throughout his life, and that Lazarus had bad things.
He doesn’t mention the fact that nothing was shared between them, there seems
no need, but now the tables have turned, but more than this, there is a chasm
between them, a chasm that cannot be crossed, and it is fixed. God himself
cannot and will not remove this chasm.
What Abraham does not say clearly
is why the Rich man is in hell. The implication is because he didn’t share his
wealth or show mercy, but Abraham does not say this he simply describes the
situation.
“You received your good things”
This reminds me of Jesus teaching
in Matthew.
6:1-6“Be careful not to do your
‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will
have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So when you give to the needy, do
not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on
the streets, to be honoured by men. I tell you the truth, they have received
their reward in full.
But when you give to the needy, do not let
your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be
in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
“And when you pray, do not be like the
hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street
corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their
reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray
to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in
secret, will reward you.
So maybe any good thing the rich
man may have done, was boasted about in public, and he received all of his
reward there and then.
Regardless of why the rich man
went to hell, it sounds like once we die, we are stuck with what we get, heaven
or hell. You can’t cross from one to the other.
So whether people want to cross
from one side to the other, they cannot. Who would want to cross over to hell?
Surely you would be mad to?
But Paul says in Romans, that he
would be willing to be lost for the sake of his Jewish brothers.
Ro 9:3* For I could wish that I
myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those
of my own race,
And what of Jesus, did he go to
hell?
The passage in 1Peter 3:19 is
tricky but may imply this.
1 Peter 3:18-22 For Christ died
for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also
he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God
waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only
a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolises
baptism that now saves you also--not the removal of dirt from the body but the
pledge of a good conscience towards God. It saves you by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand--with angels,
authorities and powers in submission to him.
Jesus was certainly willing to be
cut off, and die the death of a sinner, of a rich man with no mercy. It is only
the death of Jesus that can atone for even the smallest sin. Without the cross,
all of us would be heading for this place of torment, this place of crying and
gnashing of teeth, hell, with no hope of rescue.
As for who would want to cross
over to heaven?
Again, there is no point wanting
to be in heaven if you don’t want to be with God, because that is where God
lives.
People jokingly talk of heaven as
boring, but the Bible talks of a great wedding feast, a party, a celebration,
greater than ever before.
The Rich man certainly would prefer
not to be in Hell, but unlike the celebrities, he does not yell “get me out of
here” he is strangely accepting as though that is where he belongs, not that
complaining would solve his dilemma. Deep down he knows he is stuck. And there
is no relief.
So then the Rich man has another
thought, maybe for the first time in his life, he thinks of someone else, his
five brothers, still alive in his father’s house.
He wants Abraham to send Lazarus
back to the land of the living, to warn his brothers, because he knows they are
also heading straight for hell.
So it takes being in hell for
this rich man to get interested in evangelism. He obviously believes that there
is less of a chasm between heaven and earth than heaven and hell. That Abraham
has the power to resurrect Lazarus and send him back.
Is it a coincidence that Jesus
himself resurrects a true Lazarus in John chapter 11.
But then comes the scariest part
of the whole passage.
Abraham replies to the Rich man
that his brothers have Moses and all the prophets, and that they should listen
to them. They don’t need Lazarus.
What does this mean, “Moses and
all the prophets”?
Does Jesus use this phrase elsewhere?
In Chapter 24, on the road to
Emmaus, Jesus appears to two disciples, they don’t recognise him, and he
chastises them for not believing all that the prophets had spoken, and in verse
27 it says, “ beginning with Moses and all the prophets he explained to them
what was said in all the scripture concerning him.
It’s not that Moses and the
prophets were alive and able to preach and warn the brothers about hell. But
Moses wrote the first five books of the bible and the prophets wrote the rest
of the Old Testament.
When Abraham said that the
brothers were to listen to Moses and all the Prophets, he meant the Bible. They
were to listen to the Bible.
That was the purpose of the
Bible, to warn them and instruct them how to avoid Hell.
The Bible has everything we need
to avoid hell.
This is why the Gideon’s society still
put one in every hotel room in the world. This is why the Bible society is
translating the scriptures into every language they can.
This is why we read the bible at
church, this is why we read the bible at home, this is why we do bible study.
Not because it makes us good preachers, good ministers, good people, it
actually shows us the opposite, that we are truly sinners, but it also shows us how to escape the torment of
hell.
2 Timothy 3:14-16 states “But as for you, continue in what
you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom
you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which
are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All
Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and
training in righteousness,”
Back to the passage.
Then, in verse 30 we read, what I
believe is the saddest word in the whole passage.
“No”
Even in Hell the rich man is true
to his colours and says “no”. No to the bible, No to Moses and the prophets, no
to bible study, no to the word of God, no to repentance, no to father Abraham,
no to God.
No
The rich man argues with Abraham.
(We often have great plans or suggestions for God. Luckily he ignores them.)
The Rich man argues that if
someone from the dead goes back to those living, then they will certainly believe
and repent. Sounds like a good plan, sounds bullet proof.
But this is a worldly idea, it is
a desperate “fix-it” from someone who has never repented, or practiced faith
from the heart, or listened to God’s call, or loved God or his neighbour.
Abraham in the story then states
the most important truth.
If they do not listen to Moses
and the prophets (and by listening, he means believing) then they won’t listen
to someone who rises from the dead.
So if they do not believe the Old
Testament, which tells of Gods wonderful act of creation, of the fall of man,
Noah and the flood, of Abraham, Lot, Isaac, Jacob Joseph and then Moses. And all
the prophets, including the Psalms and Isaiah, -who we know from Jesus himself,
speak of Jesus-
If they do not listen to Moses
and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the
dead.
And sadly, I believe this is
still true today. We know that Jesus has risen from the dead, appeared to the
apostles, and lastly to Paul. Their response and witness is recorded in the New
Testament. The church has spread like wildfire around the world and throughout
history as a result. There are revivals happening right now in other countries,
and we here today are also fruit of the resurrection of Jesus.
Yet many still ignore Moses and
the prophets and their strong foretelling of Jesus.
In Genesis 3:15 after the fall, God states
that the seed of woman would crush the serpents head.
Deuteronomy 18:18 I will raise up
for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in
his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.
Isaiah 53:3-6 He was despised and
rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from
whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he
took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken
by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he
was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon
him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity
of us all.
These are just 3 of the many Old
Testament prophecies that are fulfilled in the person of Jesus.
So the sad conclusion to this
passage is that Hell is certainly awaiting sinners who do not repent, and that
the message that helped Lazarus avoid hell, that was ignored by the Rich man
was clearly stated in the words of Moses and the Prophets. The Old Testament.
The Bible.
Friends, today the Bible is
largely ignored.
Certainly by Western society, and
even by some churches.
Yet that is where we find truth,
peace, understanding, and the message of forgiveness that comes from the sacrificial
giving of Jesus body and blood.
In this passage, Abraham
represents God the father, and Lazarus may actually represent Jesus, his only
begotten Son, who is described as being in the bosom of the Father.
Joh 1:18* No-one has ever seen
God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
(NIV)
Joh 1:18* No man hath seen God at
any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath
declared him. (ASV)
The Rich man represents us as
individuals and as humanity.
If Lazarus represents Jesus, then
what was he doing at the Rich man’s gate?
I find two New Testament
scriptures that help answer this question.
Revelations 3:20 Here I am! I
stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I
will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
Luke 13:24-29 “Make every effort
to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter
and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the
door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for
us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ “Then you
will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ “But he
will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you
evildoers!’ “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you
yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south,
and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.
Friends, today Jesus is knocking.
Asking us to turn, repent, believe and trust Him. The Bible holds all the
answers that we need to be right with God, and the answers are a lot easier
than what people imagine. The Holy Spirit guides us in our understanding.
John 3:16 For God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should
not perish but have eternal life.
May God bless these words to your
salvation.
Amen
