Luke 16:14-31 "The Pharisees: loving money, ignoring God" (Carlton 6:30pm)

Hey, everybody, please keep Luke 16 open there and we'll grapple with that word together. These words of Jesus. What a privilege to read his words. Reflect on them and see how they apply to our lives. Let's pray and ask for his help.

Our gracious Father, as we come to sometimes the challenging words of Jesus, we pray that you would help them to have the challenge that you desire them to have in our lives. But we also pray that you'll give us the comfort that you desire to have from these words of our Lord. And we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Have you ever read something and just wondered, how does that fit together?

You know, maybe you read a book or an article or like an instruction manual and you just say, what's the idea here? You know, it just seems all over the place. Show of hands. Has that ever happened to you with the Bible? I would kind of hope that every person in the room might put up their hand at that point.

Well, you're in good company if you've ever felt like that with the Bible. Our passage tonight can feel a bit like that. Now, if you look on your outline there, I think there's two parts to our passage, and it can be hard to see how they fit together. There's a lot of ideas here, but I promise you, they do fit together. First of all, it's got to do with who Jesus is speaking to.

But secondly, it's got to do with the two ideas that kind of glue the passage together for us. So take a quick look first. We can see that both parts of the passage have those who love money in them. So look at verse 14. It says the Pharisees who were lovers of money.

And then verse 19, Jesus tells the story and says, there was a rich man. The first glue in our passage is the love of money, loving wealth. But the second glue is about God's word. So look at verse 16. Jesus talks about the law and the prophets.

And whenever we see that phrase in the Bible, we should know that it means the whole Old Testament. Genesis to Malachi, the law and the prophets. That's what equals the Old Testament. And it comes up again. If you look at verse 29:31, we hear about Moses, who wrote God's law, and the prophets again, same thing, God's word in the Old Testament.

So that's the glue today, loving money and listening. Or as we'll see, not listening, not listening to God's revealed word. But let's remember where we've been in Luke's gospel recently. It always helps for Us to get our bearings again. And it's always important to remember Jesus goals.

So remember Jesus. He's on his final journey to Jerusalem. He set his face to to go to the cross in Jerusalem. He's going there to die for our sin. He's going there to save us from God's coming wrath that we deserve.

He longs to set us free from sin and death and the devil and to welcome us into his kingdom. And so on his journey to Jerusalem, what does he do? Well, he keeps teaching his disciples what it is to be a disciple, what it is to truly be a follower of him. And in recent weeks, we've seen him say, well, my disciples, my people are those who who are lost, but then who are found. Sinners who repent and turn back to the God who loves the Father.

And last week, Jesus followers. They're those who see this world and the wealth of this world in right perspective. They see that whatever physical blessing God gives them in this world, we're to use it for the life to come, to win friends, for God's kingdom, to use our money and our time and our possessions to bring people to hear about Jesus and then have the chance to know him and trust in him and be part of eternity with us. And so in our passage today, Jesus continues that theme, but instead of focusing on those who are his people, he focuses on those who aren't. So come with me.

Let's first see what Jesus says. First of all, he exposes the heart of the Pharisees. So Luke sets the scene for us. What's going on? Let's look at verse 14.

It says, the Pharisees who were lovers of money. Remember that glue? They were lovers of money and they were listening to all these things and scoffing at him. So Jesus, he's been speaking to his disciples, but kind of semi publicly. The Pharisees are there and they're listening in as well to these things.

What things? The things we saw last week. The parable of the dishonest manager. They heard Jesus story. They heard him say, use your worldly wealth to make friends for eternity.

They heard him say that it doesn't matter what you have and what you get in this life. What matters is people being in eternity with you. And they've heard him say, you can't have two masters. You can't serve God and money. It's one or the other.

And the Pharisees, the seeming religious ones, how do they respond? Well, because they love money. Because in their hearts they love what they can gain. And have for themselves. They scoff at Jesus, who is this guy who can tell us how we should think and feel and what we should do with our money.

If God has blessed me with money, doesn't he want me to have it? Maybe they even thought that their money, their riches were a sign that God approved of their righteousness. Those who love money scoff at Jesus and his Word. And so Jesus, he takes direct aim at, at these scoffing Pharisees. Look at verse 15, he told them.

You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of others. But God knows your hearts. You Pharisees look righteous. He's saying, you look good before other people. But actually what you're doing is puffing yourselves up in front of other people to be admired by them.

You're driven by pride. But Jesus says, God sees through your facade. He sees. He knows your heart as it truly is. He knows what you're actually doing.

You're chasing what people admire. And Jesus says, what humans admire is revolting in God's sight. That's really strong, isn't it? What we as humans naturally value and esteem. And what we pursue is revolting, disgusting in God's sight.

Why is that? Well, it's because of the way that we delight in sin. The way we live for ourselves and not for God. The way that we love money and gaining things for ourselves instead of truly loving our neighbor for God's glory. The way we as humans chase success and personal fulfillment at the expense of others.

Or the way that we might sit back and just kind of wait for people to do stuff for us and be lazy. The way we desire and covet and lust after what doesn't belong to us and use power and words to push people down and lift ourselves up. Tribalism, judgmentalism. When you scratch the surface, that's what people really love, what they really admire. But those things are repulsive to God.

But this is the heart of the Pharisee. Looking good on the outside, on the inside, loving money and really just loving yourself over God. But then Jesus, he hones in on the heart of their problem. In verse 16, he appears to change topic all of a sudden, but. And he does.

But he's actually continuing his rebuke. He's exposing what's going on in the hearts of the Pharisees. Look at it with me. Verse 16, he says to them. The law and the prophets.

Remember that glue. The law and the prophets. The Old Testament. The period of God's word in the Old Testament was until John, he says, until John the Baptist, he was like the last Old Testament prophet calling the people of Israel back to worship their God. Since then, Jesus says, since I've come, the good news of the kingdom has been proclaimed.

Jesus is saying, you Pharisees, you're witnessing a change in history right before your eyes. The kingdom of God is arriving and I'm its king, the Messiah. And people are being urgently invited to enter that kingdom. He says, jesus and his disciples, what are they doing? They're traveling around, inviting people by sharing the message.

People are flocking to Jesus, listening to him, believing in him. And many are joining God's kingdom. They're finding the forgiveness and salvation that, that Jesus is speaking about. But what are the Pharisees doing? Are they listening, believing, repenting, joining God's kingdom?

No, they're scoffing at Jesus the king. They scoff at the message he proclaims. They refuse. They're unwilling to listen to God's word when it comes to them. And that's actually also what they do with God's Old Testament word.

Now, we don't have the time to go into everything that Jesus says about the Old Testament, how it applies and how to understand it now. But the big picture that Jesus gives us in verse 17, look there, is that God's Old Testament word is still his word. It doesn't cease to be God's word. When Jesus comes. It doesn't cease to be God's moral standard and show us his character and his will.

He's saying to the Pharisees, I, I'm not undercutting, I'm not undermining God's written word. In fact, it's you Pharisees who do that. You claim, he says to them, you claim to be on about the law and the prophets, but you don't listen to it. You don't obey it. In fact, what you do is try to find ways to obey it in kind of a light way.

You twist it, you're slippery about it. Remember the heart of the Pharisee, they love the approval of others, not God. And so they minimize God's commands to kind of be human level, acceptable to a bare minimum, where they look like they're obeying, but in their hearts and in reality they're not. And then he gives them an example of this. And the example he chooses to give is divorce and adultery.

Is there anything harder to talk about Is there anything harder to talk about than divorce and adultery? I don't think there are many topics as hard and as painful to discuss as these. And I'm very aware that there are probably many people here impacted by divorce, either directly or indirectly, in your family or in your friends. And again, because Jesus deals with so many topics here and because it's not the main point of what he's teaching here, we're not going to go into all that Jesus says here and elsewhere about marriage and divorce or all the different situations and all the possible scenarios. Does God's word have things to say to us about the reality of divorce and navigating the trickiness and messiness of life?

Yes. Does Jesus go to any of those things here? No. And of course there are debates and there are godly Christians who come to different conclusions on these things. But what Jesus is doing here is giving them an example of how they, the Pharisees don't listen to God's word.

They wiggle around it, they dismiss it. They work out just how to read it and interpret it so that they don't actually have to do it. And so Jesus exposes them. He gives them God's original and clear intention for marriage from the Old Testament. Look closely at verse 18.

He says everyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery. And everyone who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. Jesus says God's word is clear on marriage. What is marriage? It's one man and one woman joined together exclusively for life.

And so wonderful, so profound is that union, that the oneness of marriage, the two become one flesh. So much so that to divorce without grounds and to remarry equals adultery. And to marry someone who's divorced equals adultery. That's God's plain core teaching about this. But the Pharisees, what have they done?

They've taken all the caveats and all the concessions and the regulations on the exceptional circumstances in the Old Testament and they've made them the main thing. Moses said divorce is possible. God's word says it's allowed in some sense. And so it's all good. And so back then there was this large part of Jewish society who believed in, who were fine with some form of no fault divorce, divorce on little to no grounds.

But Jesus says no, if you divorce illegitimately and you marry someone else, that's betraying your original marriage. And so it's adultery. That's Jesus summary of the Old Testament on that. And so whatever. We just think about that for us, just for a moment, whatever that means for us today, it means this, that whatever state or status we find ourselves in, single, married, divorced, whatever, whatever state we find ourselves in, Jesus calls us to take that core principle, marriage is for life, to take it seriously and to work out how do I honour that now, wherever I am now in my situation, and what might it look like in those exceptional circumstances?

Well, that needs to be worked out case by case in God's church, pastorally, sensitively, wisely, humbly, lovingly, Bible open, eager to honour God's original intention for marriage however we can, and seeking care with everyone involved, seeking to care for everyone involved, especially when there's serious harm or hurt. Now, that's all I'm going to say on that today, because to say more would. Would deserve its own sermon. But I'm sure there are many people with varied circumstances in this room, either for yourself or for your family. And if this is something you want to explore further, then just reach out, because there are resources to help us think through these things.

And I want to encourage as well a deep, gracious spirit whenever we might talk about these kinds of difficult things. And most of all for anyone who's struggling in the room with that, well, we need to know the sufficient grace of Jesus, don't we? And the forgiveness that's full and freely given by the Father who welcomes the sinner home, the salvation we have in Jesus who died on the cross for us, all of us need that. And it's free and available for all of us, and especially including those for whom divorce or adultery has been a reality. That's God's love for us, for those who repent, who trust in Jesus.

He loves us despite our failings, whatever they are. But remember Jesus point. Why is he saying this to the Pharisees? Because they've ignored, they've quietly sidelined God's word on this and many other topics. And so he says, you're not truly listening to God's word.

That's your heart, Pharisee. And then just like after that bombshell that Jesus drops, he moves on. And he almost doesn't take another breath. There's no transition, there's no introduction. He just launches into a story.

This very, very famous and very confronting parable of Lazarus and the rich man, or the rich man and Lazarus. And so Jesus, he tells this story. Take a breath, you know, get ready for the next part, the second part of the passage. Let's keep digging together. Jesus tells the story of these two men, a rich man and a poor man.

And the story has three parts. Have a look at the screen. He tells us their circumstances in life, and he tells them the two men's fates after death. And then the strange conversation that happens. So first, what are the situations of each man in their lives?

Look at verse 19. There was a rich man. And the truth is he's just incredibly wealthy. This man has the absolute highest standard of living that you can imagine. He has the finest clothes that can be made.

He has the richest of food to eat every day. It says he's a multi, multi billionaire in our terms. You can't grasp just how rich, just how lavish this guy's life is every day. It's beyond imagination. He's so rich, so prosperous.

But what about the poor man? What are his circumstances? The picture is of the absolute total opposite, Jesus. He intentionally gives us in this story, extreme extremes all the time. Look at verse 20.

The poor man lies at the rich man's gate, covered with sores, riddled with disease. He's homeless, he's on the street. Verse 21. He longed to eat scraps, rubbish from the rich man's table. But there he is with stray dogs.

It's like he's lower than the dogs. It's meant to be a bit off putting. So awful, so destitute, so helpless is this man's life. His experience is suffering and agony. He has nothing good.

See, there could not be a bigger difference between these two men. Polar opposites. Riches, wealth, prosperity, pain, sorrow, poverty, desperation. But then we see what each of their fates are. What happens to each man when he dies.

Well, verse 22. The poor man died and he carried away by the angels to Abraham's side. After his awful life on this earth, what happens to him? He gets the total opposite of his life on earth. He's lifted.

God's own angels personally escort him to Abraham's side. A picture of heaven, I think, is the idea. There he is with the great patriarch Abraham, the father of their faith. This poor man is home with him. For a faithful Jew, this is a beautiful picture of heaven, of comfort, of peace, of hope.

But what about the rich man? Well, again he gets the total opposite of Lazarus and the total opposite of what he had in life. Verse 23. He dies and he goes to Hades. That word, Hades, it means the place of the dead.

The place where the souls of the dead go. And what we read here is that that place has nothing good at all. Not in any way. The rich man's no longer rich. Instead he's in torment and he's far, far away from Abraham.

There's no comfort, no joy, no peace. The truth is, he's facing what we call hell. It's God's righteous Judgment and punishment for our sin, our turning away from God. Yet again, Jesus, he brings up a hard topic to talk about, but so far we haven't been given a clear picture of why in this story. Why does Lazarus get to be in heaven and the rich man goes to Hades?

What is it that each man did or didn't do? Is it because they were rich or poor? Or how does it fit together? The answer we get is in the strange conversation that follows. It's a strange interaction, but it actually makes sense of the story.

So look at verse 24. The rich man, he looks, he sees Abraham. Lazarus far off. Father Abraham, he called out, have mercy 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 flame. He adds to the picture of just how awful God's judgment is.

So awful that he's desperate even for just a single drop of water.

Abraham replies two things, first or second, verse 26, he says, well, no, we can't help you. See, there's a great chasm between us. There's no way for us to get to you or you to get to us. See, God doesn't allow anyone to pass from heaven to hell or hell to heaven. It's permanent.

This life, the life we're given now is God's given opportunity to respond to him. Once you die, though, you face judgment and the decision's final, non reversible. But second or first look at verse 25, Abraham says to him, actually this is what's right. He says, both your experiences on life, on life on earth to the next will have been totally reversed. Lazarus is bad has turned to comfort.

Your good has turned to agony. And there's actually good reason for that. Well, what's the reason? It comes out in the next part of the conversation we have to keep following. Look at verse 27 and 28.

The rich man says, well, if you can't help me, then send Lazarus back to earth. Send him to my brothers so they don't have to come here too. Verse 29, he gives the reason. But Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets, Remember that glue, they should listen to them. Verse 30 makes it clearer.

No, Father Abraham, the man says, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.

What's the reason that things have turned out this way for the rich man? What did the rich man do or not do in his life to end up in Hades in torment?

He didn't listen to Moses and the prophets. He didn't listen To God's Word, the Old Testament. He's good, he's powerful. He's life giving and judgment. Warning word.

He didn't hear that word and repent. He didn't feel convicted of his sin. He didn't take it to heart. He didn't turn to God for his grace and mercy that he offers. He didn't live a life of repentance and faith and living out God's word.

What did he do instead?

He loved his money. He loved being rich. He loved eating and feasting lavishly every day. He didn't love God and he didn't love his neighbor as himself. Notice this.

Did you notice how the rich man knew Lazarus name?

He knew who he was.

He knew that he was the poor destitute man who lay on the street just outside his gate. He knew that he was poor and he didn't help him. He knew he was hungry and he didn't even give him scraps. Rubbish. He didn't listen to God's Word on this very topic.

What did God's Word say to him? It said this in Deuteronomy 15. Look at the screens. The Old Testament says this. If there is a poor person among you, one of your brothers within any of your city gates in the lands the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard hearted or tight fisted towards your poor brother.

Instead you were to open your hand to him and freely loan him enough for whatever need he has. But the rich man walked past Lazarus walked straight past him every day and did nothing. God's Word was clear. He didn't listen. He refused.

He was unwilling to listen to God's Word and he never repented of his sins.

Look at how the conversation finishes. Jesus drives the point home. Verse 30 no father Abraham said, send someone to them and they will repent. 31 But Abraham told him, if they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded. If someone rises from the dead, he says they have all that they need.

They have this. They have God's clear and written word about his judgment, about salvation, about the response of faith and repentance that he calls for. If they have a hard heart to God's good and clear and written word, then someone rising from the dead won't change them.

So what's the message of Jesus? Parable it's something like this. Your circumstances in this life, whether rich or poor, don't determine your eternal destiny. Now what determines your eternal destiny is whether you listen to God's word and repent or not. And remember, he's still speaking to the Pharisees.

Why is he telling them this?

That's you. That's you, Pharisee. You love money. You love the praise of others. You don't listen to the law and the prophets.

You don't listen to my message about God's kingdom. You refuse to listen to God's good and clear word. When it comes to you. You might look moral, righteous. You might affirm the right things, say the right things, but the reality of your heart is you don't love God.

You don't respond to his word unless you repent Pharisees, then Hades, agony is what awaits you. God's judgment. And that's Jesus. Hard and heavy word to the Pharisees standing right in front of him. As we bring it together and think about our response.

I think it's worth thinking about. Or how do these words, how does Jesus words here speak to the different kinds of people who might come across it? See, all along in this passage, what have we seen? We've actually seen that Jesus is speaking to who? To the Pharisees, to those whose hearts are hard to Jesus and who reject him.

He's not speaking to his disciples.

And there's part of me that hopes and prays that there's no one here today who would be like the Pharisees and have a hard heart like the Pharisees toward Jesus. But another part of me does want there to be such a person here so that you can hear Jesus words and have a chance to respond to them. See, maybe today here there are some who don't want to listen to Jesus and his Word, who don't want to listen to God's Word and repent of their sin and turn to him. There might be even those people who say, yeah, yeah, I'm a Christian and I affirm Christian things. But.

But in your heart of hearts, you're putting on a show. In reality, you don't listen to God's word. You don't take it to heart. You haven't repented. You haven't turned to Jesus, to that person.

Jesus says, listen and repent. Turn from your sin. Turn to the God who loves and the God who saves. Because the righteous judgment of God is coming and the results are final. And to fall under the wrath of God and the punishment for your sin, for your rebellion against him.

Well, what does it mean? It means agony and fire and separation from anything and everything that's good. And the worrying thing is what Jesus says here is if you're unwilling to listen to him and repent. Well, then even if someone rises from the dead, it won't change your mind.

But I pray that maybe, just maybe, Jesus words here speaking directly to you now might just cause you to stop and think and to realize their truth and bring you to bow your knee to Jesus and say, have mercy on me. I'm a sinner. Forgive me, please.

And if you do, then he will. This is the incredible thing about Jesus, about God the Father, that if you repent and trust in Jesus, he will welcome you. He will forgive you, even if you'd ignored him and His Word for a long time. Because Jesus died for you. He went through agony for your sake and for the God the Father.

Then we know that he will welcome, as we've seen in previous weeks, he will welcome you with open arms now and into all eternity. And so I plead with you, if that's you, to think about that.

But what about those who have done that already to Jesus? Disciples, his followers who've listened to His Word, who've repented and sought to live a life humbly for him. How does Jesus speak to us here? In one sense, he doesn't. Jesus spoke these.

These weighty words to his enemies. And so the Christian who hears these words of Jesus shouldn't be crushed by what he says. Warned, yes, challenged to think about our hearts and how we might be tempted to be like the Pharisees, sure. But actually, for those of us here who've listened to Jesus words, God's words, and repented, well, it's actually Lazarus that we identify with in the story. Did you know that in all of Jesus parables, Lazarus is the one person, the one main character, who Jesus gives a name.

Why is that? It's because of what that name Lazarus means. It means the one God helped.

See, Jesus wasn't speaking to his disciples here, but there is a message for us.

God is our helper.

He loves us. He will help us. And even if your experience of life is hard and even if it's like Lazarus life, or for that matter, like Jesus. See, even if you experienced the poorest and most difficult and painful and awful life that was possible in this world, yet you listen to God's word and repent well, then God is your helper and he'll help you to get to the end. And then he'll welcome you into eternity and to Abraham's side and into heaven and into a new creation where every tear is wiped away and where grief and pain and death are gone and there is only joy and Peace and comfort as you see Jesus face to face.

And it's not because there's anything good in us. It's not because we deserve any praise for admitting we're sinners. It's not because we're any better than a Pharisee. No, it's because we open our hands and accept a gift. A gift of God's grace through faith.

Trusting in Jesus, trusting in his death. For us, it's simply because we trust in God, our helper. Doesn't that comfort us?

Follower of Jesus Christian this passage should comfort us as we think and see the experience of Lazarus. And doesn't that make us want to proclaim Jesus and His Word to our world all the more? Just think about this as the very last thing that we think about. How has God chosen to work in the world? Through His Word.

Through His Word written and shared and proclaimed. That's how he worked in the Old Testament. That's what he said about that man. Listen to Moses and the prophets. We have more than Moses and the prophets.

We have Jesus. And here Jesus says his Word is enough. We don't need a miracle. We don't need someone to rise from the dead, though Jesus did. No, it's his Word that's powerful.

To save people from God's judgment, from Hades, from agony, and save us into eternal life and freedom and comfort. Sadly, there are those who won't listen and repent. But that shouldn't discourage us because there are those who will, those like us. And so our job is to simply keep sharing God's Word, the gospel, the good news of Jesus, and pray and trust that his Word will do its work in people's hearts. Let's pray about that, our gracious Father, as we feel the weight of Jesus Words to the Pharisees.

We pray that those of us who need to listen to your Word and repent will do so. But for those of us who have done that, we pray that we would have the comfort that Lazarus received and that we would know the joy of eternity and the hope of heaven that we have as we repent and believe and trust in our Lord Jesus and his death for us. And so help us to live a life of faith and repentance and listening to your Word. And we pray in Jesus name. Amen.