Scripture: Luke 16:19-31
One time, at a previous church many years ago, on a rainy Sunday afternoon, I was racing across the church parking lot to my car. I’ve never been one to check the weather—I’m not a fan of weather; I find it boring; I haven’t spent more than five minutes total in my life, for instance, watching The Weather Channel. So I never carry an umbrella. Therefore I’m often unprepared for rainstorms. And there was a rainstorm on this particular day… As I’m running quickly through the parking lot, I passed a young woman who worked in our church’s children’s department. She also failed to carry an umbrella… yet unlike me, she was walking casually in the rain. And I’m like, “What are you doing? Why aren’t you in a hurry… like me?”
She said, “Running in the rain causes you to get drenched more than walking. Because you’re just running into more raindrops as you run. So it makes more sense to walk.”
Well… I ignored her and kept on running. But I thought, “Is that true?” Turns out lots of people think so… Many people believe that running in the rain is worse than walking. So much so that this idea was put to the test on that old Discovery Channel show Mythbusters. So here’s the possible “myth” that they put to the test: “Walking in the rain keeps you drier than running.”
Is it true or false? What do you think?
It’s false. Our intuition is correct: running in the rain keeps you drier than walking.
How about this one?… And this one actually goes back to when I was in elementary school. All of us kids heard and believed this one: “A penny dropped from the Empire State Building can kill a person”—or at least cause serious injury.”
True or false?
Thankfully, it’s false… Whew! Now… if one drops a piano rather than a penny… all bets are off.
Anyway… these myths are “busted.”
In today’s sermon, I want to bust “myths” that many people—even many Christians—have about hell… myths that are mostly busted by Jesus’ own words in today’s “twisted tale”: the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.
So let’s begin… Myth Number One: People in hell experience a change of heart.
One reason we often struggle to accept the doctrine of hell, despite overwhelming biblical evidence, is because we worry that the moment someone finds themselves in hell they realize their mistake and become penitent… They’re sorry for their sins… They see the error of their ways… And now they want nothing more than to repent of their sins and believe in Jesus… if only God would let them!
Today’s scripture speaks against this idea… After all, where’s the evidence of the Rich Man’s repentance? Maybe verse 24?“And he [the Rich Man] called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me…” Well, that sounds a little like repentance. But first, notice the Rich Man isn’t asking God for mercy because of his sins; rather, he’s asking Abraham to do something merciful for him: to fetch him some water to “cool his tongue.”
Only, he’s not even doing that. The Rich Man would never ask “father Abraham” to do that. Abraham is too important and powerful. The Rich Man knows his place in the pecking order; he has too much respect for “father Abraham” to ask him to do something so menial. But the Rich Man does recognize that man at Abraham’s side—Lazarus. Lazarus is that nobody who used to sit at the entrance of his gate and beg. Lazarus doesn’t matter. He’s no better than a slave anyway, so, “Father Abraham, would you please send him to fetch water and cool my tongue.”
Similarly in verse 27, he asks Abraham to to make Lazarus go warn his brothers: Because the Rich Man’s attitude toward Lazarus in death is exactly the same as it was when he was alive. Lazarus is beneath the Rich Man. The Rich Man still feels superior to Lazarus.
So… Where’s the repentance?
And you might say, “Yes, but surely the Rich Man softens his heart in verse 27… After all, he has genuine compassion for his five brothers… because he doesn’t want them to suffer.”
But not so fast… Maybe he has a little compassion for his brothers, but let’s not get carried away… As more than a few preachers and commentators have pointed out, the main reason the Rich Man wants Lazarus to go warn his brothers is not so much because of his compassion as his anger: he believes that what’s happened to him is unjust! He’s basically saying, “Nobody told me about this place! I didn’t have enough information! No one gave me adequate warning about hell! And I don’t want this same injustice to be done to my brothers.”
In other words, it’s as if the Rich Man were saying, “It’s not fair what God has done to me. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen to my brothers!”
But why isn’t God being fair? If you spend your lifetime rebelling against God, refusing to submit to God’s will, refusing to obey him, refusing to repent and put yourself—by God’s grace—into a right relationship with him, aren’t you telling God, through your thoughts, words, and deeds, “I don’t want you, God.”
I mean, I’ve known plenty of people who’ve grown up in church, who know at least a little about Jesus, a little about the gospel, a little about God’s Word. And they’ve told me, “Yeah, I’m not so sure what I believe about God or Christianity. I have these questions. I have these objections. I have these doubts.” And that’s fine—I am all about trying to answer skeptics’ questions, objections, and doubts. Try me!
But at what point do these questions, objections, and doubts become a dodge… a smokescreen…
These people are often proving by their own indifference toward God that they don’t want him in their lives. They don’t want to know him. They don’t want to do his will.
And in the end—like it or not—God is going to respect their wishes… God is going give them what they’ve “told” God they most want most of all: to be left alone by God!
As C.S. Lewis said, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’”
Hell is precisely what happens when God leaves us alone… when God separates himself from us… When God removes from our lives all traces of his grace and love… None of us knows what that’s like in this world right now, because God is present everywhere. His grace is everywhere, and it’s experienced to some extent by everyone in this world. As Jesus says, “[Our Father] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” 1
But hell is what happens when God removes even this much grace. And that’s a terrifying reality.
So that’s Myth Number One, “People in hell experience a change of heart.”
Myth Number Two…
Let me begin by talking about that time in sixth grade, in 1982, when the “Ants” invaded our elementary school. These were not ants with which most of you are familiar: I’m referring to a particular British “ant” named Adam and his band. They were at one time called “Adam and the Ants”… then later it was just Adam Ant. But Adam Ant had some hit songs and videos on MTV. And for a while, my classmates and I loved Adam Ant. And I still do, of course. In fact, I saw Adam Ant in concert last year in Atlanta!
But Adam Ant wrote a song early in his career that attacked church and organized religion, always a fashionable thing to do. It was a song in which he sang these words: “I could have religion/ If an angel touched my shoulder/ I could have religion/ If God said, ‘Hello.’”
So… Is that true? Would he “have religion”—have saving faith—if God did something so miraculous?
Let’s put it to the test… Myth Number Two: “Miracles can make someone believe.”
The Rich Man in today’s parable certainly thinks so. See verses 27 and 28: “Then I beg you, father, to send [Lazarus] to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” And then in verse 30, he says, “if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.”
But Abraham disagrees…
In disagreeing, Abraham is standing on the firm foundation of scripture from beginning to end. During the Exodus and the forty years in the wilderness, for instance, Israel was surrounded by constant, undeniable evidence of God’s power and presence—miracles like the parting of the Red Sea, like daily manna from heaven, like water from the rock, like the pillar of cloud and fire, like the glory of God descending on Mount Sinai.
These Israelites saw it all!
Yet despite witnessing these wonders firsthand, the people repeatedly fell into grumbling, into rebellion, into idolatry—most notoriously in the worship of the golden calf while Moses was still on the mountain receiving God’s law.
Why? Because miracles cannot produce saving faith.
Or how about Paul and Barnabas, on Paul’s first missionary journey, in Acts chapter 14? They heal a crippled man in Lystra. The crowds are so astonished by the miracle that they mistake them for gods—calling Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes—and begin preparing sacrifices in their honor.
Despite Paul’s urgent attempt to redirect their worship and explain that they are merely human messengers pointing to the living God, the miracle itself stirs idolatry, not repentance and faith. And in a stunning turn of events, many in the same crowd of people who once hailed them as gods are persuaded by Paul’s Jewish opponents literally to stone Paul and leave him for dead.
Why? Because miracles cannot produce saving faith.
Of course, the best example of this truth is what happens to Jesus, in John 11… with another man named Lazarus… the brother of Mary and Martha, who dies of an illness. Jesus raised this Lazarus from the dead… only about ten days before he was crucified. In fact, John’s gospel tells us that the very raising of Lazarus is the “last straw” for religious leaders in Jerusalem. It’s this event that sets into motion all the events leading up to the cross.
Because, these religious leaders think, Jesus is becoming too popular, too powerful in the eyes of ordinary people. And Jesus needs to be stopped before he attracts the unwanted attention of the Roman army, and the Romans use violent force to stamp out this rival king.
But how is it possible that doing some great miracle like raising someone from the dead would cause people to want to kill Jesus instead of falling on their faces—to worship, to repent, and to give their lives to Christ? These people know from overwhelming eyewitness testimony that Jesus performed the miracle! That’s not even the main question. Why isn’t the miracle enough for them?
Because… miracles cannot produce saving faith.
Saving faith is never merely believing certain facts—even miraculous facts—about God and Jesus. Remember James’s warning in his letter? “You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.” 2
Satan himself could recite the Nicene Creed and believe that every word of it is true… but that alone isn’t saving faith!
So that’s Myth Number Two: No one goes to hell because God failed to offer convincing or miraculous proof of who he is.
Myth Number Three…
Let’s start by thinking about the meaning of Lazarus’s name: It literally means, “God is my help”… and since this is the only parable in which Jesus gives a character a name, Jesus must think that the name’s meaning is important.
And why not? Our name is the most important way we identify ourselves. It most closely communicates who we are. And notice that Lazarus’s name identifies him as someone inextricably linked to God… His name says, “The most important fact about me is that God is my help.” Lazarus belongs to God. God possesses Lazarus. And Lazarus possesses God. More than a few preachers have said, over the years, “You don’t know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.” Well… Jesus is almost literally all that Lazarus has… and that’s enough for him. Because the Lord is his help.
Following this same line of reasoning, however… Surely the Rich Man’s lack of a name is conspicuous. What does Jesus mean by not naming him?
I think it’s this: The most important fact about this man is that he’s rich. He’s identified not by his own name—whatever it may be—so much as by the worldly goods that he possesses… Unlike Lazarus, he’s not defined by his relationship with God but his relationship with money… with comfort… with luxury… with worldly treasure… with material goods… That’s where this man’s treasure is; therefore, as Jesus says elsewhere, that’s where his heart is too. 3
And this is the myth I want to bust right now: Myth Number Three: The life that the Rich Man lived in this parable represents “the good life,” the kind of life to which all of us should aspire.
But that’s an absolute lie. This rich man was not living “the good life.” Why? Because any life apart from being in a saving relationship with God through Christ can never be “the good life”… As Jesus himself says, he is life.4 Our life is found in Christ alone.
In fact, the problem with money and wealth, as Jesus warns again and again, is that it makes a deceptive promise: It says, “Trust in me. Give your life to me. And I’ll give you life. I’ll satisfy you. I’ll give you abundant life. I’ll give you happiness and joy. I’ll give you meaning and purpose.” And although it can never fulfill these promises, we continue to be tempted to believe that it can!
But listen: The longest, fullest, richest life imaginable, in this world, is the smallest blip in light of eternity. It just is; we know this. Therefore the most important thing that any of us can do in this life is to prepare for the life to come!
The Rich Man was utterly unprepared!
Every day, after all, God tested the Rich Man every time he walked through his gate and saw Lazarus sitting on the other side. God tested him! And the test was this: “Are you going to prove to Me that you treasure me more than your money, your material possessions, your worldly treasures?” And every day the Rich Man failed the test.
Recall that I said that Lazarus’s name means, “God is my help.” Perhaps you scoff at that name. “Is this a joke?” you might think. “Surely his name is ironic, because of all people in the world, God clearly hasn’t been much help to poor Lazarus!
“God helped the Rich Man, sure… The Rich Man didn’t appreciate God’s help. But God was hardly any help to poor Lazarus!”
That’s what we’re tempted to think.
But who are we kidding? Of course God helped Lazarus! Compare the two men at the very moment they died: In verse 22, when Lazarus dies, he gets “carried by the angels to Abraham’s side.” But when the Rich Man dies, all he gets is “buried”… along with an eternity in hell, of course!
In his life in the world, it’s true that Lazarus knew much affliction; he knew much sickness; he knew much misery… but he also knew God—and for all we know, he knew more and more of God every day; he learned to treasure God more and more every day!
So the moment he died, do you suppose Lazarus thought, “I wish God had given me all that he gave to that Rich Man at whose gate I used to beg!” Of course not! More than likely he thought, “If it took my desperate circumstances on earth to enable me to trust in God alone for consolation and joy, to draw me closer and closer to God, to enable me to treasure Christ above all, then it was completely worth it! I wouldn’t trade a moment of my life on earth for that rich man’s life!”
The nineteenth century British preacher Charles Spurgeon famously said, “Don’t envy a rich man who doesn’t know Christ. Don’t be jealous. Pity him… This world is all the heaven he’ll ever know. Meanwhile, for a poor man who knows Christ… this world is all the hell that he’ll ever know!”
Many of you have heard of the artist and writer named Joni Eareckson Tada. Back in the ’70s, at age 17, she dove off a raft into the shallows of the Chesapeake Bay. She misjudged the depth, hit her head on the sandy bottom, and lost all sensation in her arms and legs. She was paralyzed. She has been a quadriplegic ever since.
Yet, in an article she published on The Gospel Coalition website on the fiftieth anniversary of her accident a few years ago, she describes all the good things that have happened as a result of that terrible event: among them, a greater love for the lost, greater compassion for others, an increase of faith, a happy longing for heaven, a delight in prayer, and a hunger for God’s Word. She writes, “Oh, bless the stern schoolmaster that is my wheelchair!… It’s all to the praise of deeper healing in Christ.” 5
And speaking of “deeper healing,” several years ago, a 20-year-old young woman named Maggie, a friend of my daughter Elisa’s, died after a long battle with cancer. Shortly before she died, as she lay unconscious in hospice care, her parents posted the following on their blog about their daughter’s imminent death—which they rightly described as a “transition.” They wrote:
And it is, after all, a transition. We’re walking her home as far as we’re allowed. Her faith is firm and secure. Her mansion is ready. Where would we be without the promises of God? Don’t find yourself on the brink of what the world would say is the worst thing to happen to a parent without a rock hard grip on the promises of His Word. Don’t. We know her healing is close. Closer than any treatment or surgery could ever bring her. Her healing will be complete. Her future secure… She’ll be free.
I love that! “Her healing will be complete.” Why? Because God was Maggie’s help.
If you’re in Christ, like Maggie, and you’re sick and in need of healing—either physical, spiritual, or mental healing—and people right now are praying for your healing… God may choose to heal you now, on this side of heaven. Praise God. Regardless, you can be sure that in the end, God will answer every one of those prayers for your healing with an emphatic yes.
If you’re not in Christ—if you’ve never truly believed in him, never truly received his gift of eternal life… Maybe you’ve told yourself, “I still have time to figure all this out”… Please hear the warning. The Rich Man isn’t wrong when he pleads with Abraham to go warn his brothers in verse 28, “lest they also come into this place of torment.”
Listen: we have all, at times, been made uncomfortable by street preachers with megaphones warning about hell and final judgment. They can easily and often come on too strong… Sometimes—I’ll admit—it almost seems like they’re happy that many of the passersby being forced to listen to them are bound for hell. They sometimes don’t seem to have a lot of love in their message.
That’s not who we are, though… Right? We are loving… We are compassionate… We are eager for people to treasure Christ like we do… because after all, it’s the only path to lasting happiness in this world… and of course the only path to eternal life. Jesus is the way…
We believe that… Right?
Gosh, two years ago, we even told the good people of Toccoa, Georgia… not to mention the good people of the United Methodist Church, “We’re not like those other Methodists! You know, the ones who don’t believe the Bible… those other Methodists who deny the “difficult” doctrines in scripture—like hell, the devil, Final Judgment, salvation through Christ alone, the need for repentance from sin, et cetera.”
Two years ago, like Martin Luther, we stood on scripture and affirmed our trust in God’s Word and said, “Here we stand, we can do no other.”
And most of us were willing, back then, to pay a great cost—even to abandon our buildings and property and bank accounts—if necessary… because we believed so strongly in the truthfulness of God’s Word.
Remember?
And remember what our critics in the denomination at large said about Methodists like us—not to mention, sadly, some critics who used to be members of this very church… What did they say about us then? I’ll refresh your memory. They said, “Yes, you believe the Bible… Fine, fine…but you don’t love people enough.”
That’s what they were saying back then.
So here’s my question… Were they right? Or have we proven them wrong?
Because we Methodists—I mean, the ones who disaffiliated from the UMC… we believe the Bible when it says, for instance, that every single human being will one day stand before God in Final Judgment… and give an accounting for their life… And we believe that unless our sins are forgiven through faith in Christ and his atoning death on the cross and resurrection, we will be separated from God… for eternity… in hell.
We believe that. Don’t we?
And we believe that this difficult truth applies to people we know and love right now in Toccoa… We believe it applies to strangers we haven’t yet gotten to know in Toccoa… We believe it applies to strangers all around the world that are within in the reach of the Global Methodist Church of which we are now part.
We believe the Bible when it teaches the difficult truth about hell… Right?
And yet… Look around… And look within… And let’s ask ourselves, “Are we living our lives in a way that’s consistent with our belief in the reality of hell? Are we conducting our affairs as a church in a way that’s consistent with this belief?”
Because… if we love people… if we truly love them… we will love them enough to do all that we can to rescue them from hell. Doing so will surely be our most urgent, our most overriding passion… as a church… as individuals. Not buildings, not property, not bank accounts, and not even, by the way, the same people we’ve known and loved for decades as part of this church. Our mission goes far beyond them…
Although there are plenty of people who have some historic connection to this church—friends and neighbors whose names remain on dusty old membership rolls… They’re not in this or any other church this morning… Many of them don’t know Jesus, and we certainly need to warn them, and do what we can to rescue them… from hell.
Do we love these friends enough to do that?
If so, the Great Commission will be at the very center of everything we do as a church.
So let’s prove our critics wrong… Let’s “bust that myth” which says that we at Toccoa First don’t love our neighbors enough to do all we can to rescue them from hell. Amen.
- Matthew 5:45
- James 2:19 NLT
- Matthew 6:21; Luke 12:34
- John 14:6
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Joni Eareckson Tada, “Why Joni Eareckson Tada Praises God for Not Healing Her,” thegospelcoalition.org, 17 July 2019. Accessed 20 July 2019.