Inconvenient and outrageous - an old truth

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Bible reading: Luke 16:19-31 (The Message)

The Rich Man and Lazarus

^19-21"There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man's table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.

^22-24"Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap. He called out, 'Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I'm in agony in this fire.'

^25-26"But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus the bad things. It's not like that here. Here he's consoled and you're tormented. Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.'

^27-28"The rich man said, 'Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won't end up here in this place of torment.'

²⁹"Abraham answered, 'They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.' ³⁰"'I know, Father Abraham,' he said, 'but they're not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.' ³¹"Abraham replied, 'If they won't listen to Moses and the Prophets, they're not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.'"

Just what is this truth that in our pluralistic times is considered not merely inconvenient, but outright outrageous and hateful? This is what our guest speaker, Dale Losch, addressed in last Sunday's sermon. In one word, it is hell.
Did you know that...
-10% of Americans believe their financial well-being is a reflection of what God thinks of them.
-60% of Americans believe in a place called hell.
-only 4% think they'll go there.
-78% think they have an excellent chance of going to heaven.
We as a culture and even as Christians have become 'caught up' in the politically correct times, afraid to sound offensive, and wanting to believe that there could be different ways to God. Have we forgotten His Word stands eternal, unchanging and true? What was true in the days of Lazarus stands true today. What is the truth about hell?

1.The world will be engulfed in a firestorm of God's wrath in hell, a real place.
-hell is real.
-hell is horrible.
-hell is absolute darkness.
-hell is forever.
The rich man was in agony. Being burnt alive has to be the most horrible death. Just think of the picture of the people in 9/11 throwing themselves out of windows 90 stories high. For them, it was preferable to being consumed by fire.

2. Hell will be full of the world's brightest and best.
-Have you ever seen Larry King interview Christians? His most common question is, "Do you mean to say that all people who are not 'saved' or believe in Jesus as His Saviour will go to hell?" His tone suggests he expects an answer to reveal how hateful and narrow-minded such an absolute truth could be. Come on, there are many good people who are not Christians. Will they go to hell? The philanthropists? The humanitarians? The wonderful stay-at-home mom next door? According to God, apparently so, for wide is the gate that leads to destruction and it is full of the majority of humanity.

3. God has only one remedy for humanity's sin problem: Jesus
-John 14:6 (NIV) says, Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Think about it, if there were other ways to get to God, would He have sacrificed His only Son in such a horrible way?

I remember as a child how the graphic picture of hell's fire put a holy fear in me and I sure did not want to go there. Thus was my start on my journey to faith, a desire to go the preferable place, heaven, a fear of hell and fire. It was also a time of my life where I was consumed with care that the people I love not go to hell and I shared the gospel without embarassment.

How times have changed. When I worked for the city, you were forbidden to talk about your faith in the workplace, although this rule usually applied to Christians. The atmosphere around me has become distinctly anti-Christian. I don't want to be labelled as narrow-minded, hateful or even stupid for believing that there is a hell or that a loving God would send 'good' people there just for believing the 'wrong' thing. I needed to be reminded of this truth that indeed there are people I love who will experience eternal agony unless they hear and accept the Truth. But herein lies the key which has not been practiced by many Christians, the Truth must be spoken in love. God's grace has been conspicuously absent from some aggressive evangelistic techniques. The God I have come to know however, is an absolute Gentleman.

As Dale puts it,
God does not send people to hell, He simply honors their choice.
The rich man did not go to hell because he was rich and did not care about Lazarus. Lazarus did not got to heaven because he was poor. Look at what the rich man says about his brothers, he wants them to 'change their ways'. In other translations, the word repent is used. The prophets and Moses spoke of the Messiah to come, they spoke of repentance.

It is your choice. What do you choose?

John 3:16 (The Message)

^16-18"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.