Luke 16:14-31 "The Pharisees: loving money, ignoring God" (Carlton 9:00am)

Morning everyone. Again, can I add my welcome to the many welcomes this morning? My name's Troy, one of our pastors here. We're going to be looking at Luke 16, those verses just read out for us then. It's our habit as a church to read the Bible passage by passage as we work through one of the books of the Bible.

At the moment we're working through Luke and seeing the life of Jesus. And so we've come across these words, some of them quite confronting and challenging, but here they are as God's word to us and so we're going to explore them together. I'm going to pray in just a moment, but can I also thank you if you've been praying for me over the last few weeks while I've been just quite very unwell. I'm glad to be back here at 90 something percent strength, let's say. But let's pray.

Gracious Father, we pray that as your word confronts us, that it would challenge us in the ways that you desire it to and that you would give us the comfort your word gives as well in these words. And we pray for your strength to focus on what you have said to us here and to listen to our Lord Jesus and live in light of his words. 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 you read an article or an instruction manual and you just say, what's going on here? Like that seems all over the place. Show of hands. Has that ever happened to you when you read the Bible? I hope many, many people in the room put their hands up because you're in good company if that's you.

There are some parts of the Bible, the passage today, for example, that feel a bit like that. How does it fit together? Now I think there's two parts of our passage today. You can see them printed there in your outline, but it can be hard to see how they fit together. There's quite a lot of ideas in these verses, but I promise you they do fit together.

It's got to do with who Jesus is speaking to. And it helps to see the two ideas that glue the passage together. So just take a quick look first. We can see both parts of our passage have those who love money in them. So look at verse 14, the Pharisees who were lovers of money.

And then look at verse 19, Jesus tells a story and says, there was a rich man, he had money. The first glue in the passage is about loving money. Loving wealth. But the second glue is about God's word. Look at verse 16.

Jesus talks about the law and the prophets. Whenever you see that phrase in the Bible, it means the whole Old Testament Genesis to Malachi, the law and the prophets equals all of God's Old Testament word. It comes up again. If you look down in the second part of the passage 29 and 31, we hear about Moses who wrote the law and the prophets. Again, the same thing.

It's talking about God's Old Testament word. So that's the glue that fits the passage together. Hopefully that helps somewhat as we go through it. Loving money, first and second, listening or as we'll see, 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 have our bearings again. It's always important to remember Jesus goals. So remember Jesus. Where is he? What is he doing?

He's on his final journey to Jerusalem. He set his face to go to the cross, to die for our sin, to save us from God's coming wrath and to bring us into his kingdom. He longs to save us from sin and death and from Satan and welcome us into God's kingdom. So he's on the journey to Jerusalem to achieve that. And on the way, what does he do?

He teaches. And he teaches his disciples what it means to be a disciple, a follower of him. And in recent weeks we've seen him say things like, my disciples are the lost who are found, sinners who repent and turn back to the loving Father. And last week, Jesus followers are those who see the world and our wealth in right perspective. They see that whatever physical blessing God gives us in this world, well then we use it for the world, the life to come, to win friends, for God's kingdom, to use money and all that we have to help people to hear about Jesus and trust in him and join his kingdom for eternity.

And today in our passage, well, Jesus continues on that theme, but he doesn't focus on so much those who are his disciples. Instead he turns and speaks to those who aren't. So come with me. First we see Jesus. He exposes the heart of the Pharisee.

Let's see the scene that Luke sets for us. What's going on? Have a look at verse 14. Says the Pharisees who were lovers of money. That's the glue.

Remember, lovers of money were listening to all these things and scoffing at him. Jesus, he's been speaking to his disciples, but kind of Semi, publicly. The Pharisees have been listening into these things. What things? The things we saw last week.

That parable of the dishonest manager. They heard his story. They heard him say, use your worldly wealth to make friends in eternity. What matters is not so much what you have and get in this life. What matters is people being eternally with you.

And they've heard him say, you can't have two masters. You cannot serve God and money. It's one or the other. And the Pharisees, the seemingly religious ones, how do they respond? Well, because they love money, because their hearts love what they can gain and have for themselves.

They scoff at Jesus, who is this guy who can tell us what to do with our money and what we should think about. If God has blessed me with money, well, that's because he wants me to have it. Maybe they even thought their money was a sign that God approved of them for their righteousness. Those who love money scoff at Jesus and scoff at his word. And so Jesus takes direct aim at them.

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, you look good before others, but you are puffing yourself up to be a show before others. 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, that you're chasing what humans admire. And Jesus says, what is highly admired by people, by man, is revolting in God's sight. Those are strong words, right?

We as humans, what we naturally value and esteem and put up on a pedestal. Jesus says this revolting, disgusting to God. The way we delight in sin and live for ourselves, not him. The way we love money and gaining things for ourselves instead of truly loving our neighbour and for God's glory. The way that we as humans chase success and personal fulfillment at the expense of others.

Or the way that we maybe just sit back and be lazy and expect others to do things for us. The way we desire and covet and lust after what doesn't belong to us. We use power and words to push others down, lift ourselves up. Tribalism, judgmentalism, these things, if you scratch beneath the surface, these things are highly admired by humanity, but they're revolting to God. This is the heart of the Pharisees.

Looking good on the outside, but in their hearts, loving money and really loving themselves. But then Jesus hones in on the heart of their problem. In verse 16 he appears to change topic all of a sudden, doesn't he? How does that fit together? But actually, he's continuing his rebuke of them.

He's exposing what's going on in their hearts. Look at verse 16 with me. Jesus says to them, the law and the prophets, Remember that glue. The Old Testament, the Old Testament word and period were until John, Jesus says, John the Baptist, he was like the last Old Testament prophet. He was calling Israel back to worship their God.

Since then, though, Jesus says, since I've come, the good news of the kingdom of God has been proclaimed. So Jesus is saying, you Pharisees, you are witnessing a change in history right before your eyes. The kingdom of God is arriving and I'm its king, the Messiah, he says. And people, they're urgently invited to enter it. Jesus and his disciples, they're getting the message out.

People are flocking to Jesus and listening to him and believing in him. Many are joining God's kingdom. They're finding forgiveness from Jesus and salvation. But what are the Pharisees doing? Are they listening, believing, repenting, joining God's kingdom?

No, they're scoffing, 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 actually this is what they have always done and do with the Old Testament word as well.

Now, we don't have time to go into everything that Jesus says about the Old Testament and how we should understand and apply it. But Jesus in verse 17, he gives us the big picture. And it's that God's word in the Old Testament is still God's 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'm not undercutting and undermining God's word. You are. You're the ones who are doing that. You claim to be all about the law and the prophets, but you don't listen to it, you don't obey it. In fact, what you do is find ways to kind of wiggle around it so you don't have to truly obey it.

You kind of twist it and interpret it so you can get out of it. That's the heart of the Pharisee, that they love the approval of others, not God. So what do they do? They minimize God's commands to kind of just pass the mark, to look like they're obeying, but in their hearts they're not. And then he gives them an example of this.

And the example is divorce and adultery. Is there any harder topic to talk about than divorce and adultery? I think there's many topics at all that are hard, as hard or painful to deal with as these. And I'm very aware that there's many people in here, this room now, impacted by divorce, either directly or indirectly, through your family and 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 about marriage and divorce or all the possible situations and scenarios.

Does God's word have things to say about the reality of divorce and navigating the sad and messy realities of life? Yes. Does Jesus go into any of those things here? No. And of course there are debates where godly Christians come to some very different conclusions on some of these things.

But what we see Jesus do here is give an example of how the Pharisees don't listen to God's word. They wiggle around it, they dismiss it. They work out how to read it and interpret it so they don't actually have to do it. And so Jesus exposes them. He gives them the clear and original intention of God's Old Testament word on marriage and divorce.

Look closely at verse 18. It 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 on marriage is clear. One man and one woman joined together exclusively for life.

So wonderful, so profound, is that union, the oneness of marriage. The two become one flesh. So much so that to divorce without grounds and remarry equals adultery. Or to marry someone who's divorced equals adultery. That's God's plain core teaching on this topic.

But the Pharisees, what have they done? Well, they've taken all the caveats and the concessions and the regulations on exceptional circumstances in the Old Testament and they've made those things the main thing. Moses said divorce is possible. God's word says it's allowed in some sense, so it's all good. So there was a large portion of Jewish society in that day who believed in and were fine with a form of no fault divorce on little to no grounds.

But Jesus says that God says no, if you divorce illegitimately, marry someone else, that's the betrayal of your original marriage. It's adultery. That's Jesus. Summary of the Old Testament on this. And so how do we think about that for us?

So it means that whatever state or status we find ourselves in, single, married, divorced, 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 in the situation that I'm in now. And what does 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, and seeking the care of everyone involved, especially when there's serious hurt or harm, and seeking always to honour God's original intention, his design for marriage. That's all I'm going to say on that today, because to say more would deserve a whole nother sermon.

And there might be many and varied experiences in this room and circumstances. And so if you want to explore any of those things more, then please reach out. There are resources to help us think through these things, but I want to encourage a deeply gracious spirit in each one of us. If we speak about these things, when we speak about these things, and most of us, sorry, most of all, we need to know the sufficient grace of Jesus, the forgiveness full and freely given by the Father who welcomes the sinner home, regardless of what we've done, regardless of whether divorce, adultery has been a reality for us. Actually, God welcomes all of us in spite of our sin, as he forgives us.

Such is God's love for those who repent and turn back to him he loves, despite our failings, whatever they are. But remember Jesus point. What is he saying to the Pharisees? Because they've ignored and quietly sidelined God's word on this on many topics. He says, you don't truly listen to God's word.

That's your heart, Pharisees. And then after such a bombshell, Jesus moves on. And he doesn't. It's almost like he doesn't take another breath, no transition, no introduction. He just launches into the very famous and very confronting parable of Lazarus and the rich man.

So take a breath. We're going to jump into the next part of the story, this story that Jesus tells of two men, a rich man and a poor man. And the story, it has three parts. Jesus tells us their circumstances in life. He tells us their two fates after death.

And then a strange conversation that happens. So first, what are their situations in life? Look at verse 19, says there was a rich man. And if you look at the description, he has incredible wealth. This man has the absolute highest standard of living that you can imagine.

He has the finest clothes that can be made. He eats a feast at his table every day, the finest food. He's like a multi, multi billionaire in our terms. You can't grasp just how rich, how lavish this guy's life is. 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's intentionally giving us extreme extremes.

Look at verse 20. The poor man lies at the rich man's gates, covered with sores, riddled with disease. He's homeless, he's on the street. Verse 21. He longs to eat scraps from the rich man's table, the stuff that he throws out.

But even the stray dogs are better than him. He's lower than the dogs. It's meant to be off putting a little bit. So awful, so destitute, so helpless is this man's life. He has nothing.

His life is only suffering and agony. There could not be a bigger difference between these two men. Polar opposites. Riches, wealth, gladness, poverty, desperation, pain. But then we see what each of their fates are, what happens to each of them when they die.

Verse 22. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's side after his life on earth. So awful. What does this poor man get? He gets the total opposite.

He's lifted. God's own angels personally escort his soul to where? To Abraham's side. Heaven, I think, is the picture. There he is there with the great patriarch Abraham, the father of the faith.

The poor man's home, home with him. For a faithful Jew, this is a picture, a beautiful picture of heaven, of comfort, of joy, of peace. But what about the rich man? He gets the total opposite of Lazarus and the total opposite of what he had in this life. Verse 23.

He dies and he goes to Hades. That word, Hades in the Bible it means the place of the dead, the place where the souls of the dead go. And here we see that it's not a good place at all in any way. The rich man's no longer rich. Instead he's in torment and he's far, far away from Abraham.

No comfort, no joy, no peace. The truth is, he's facing what we call hell, God's righteous judgment and punishment for sin. Yet again, Jesus brings up a hard topic to talk about. But so far, so far we haven't been given a clear reason why. Why does Lazarus get to be in heaven and the rich man In Hades, what is it that each man did or didn't do?

Is it something to do with their riches or their poverty? We get the answer in a strange conversation that follows. It's a strange interaction, but it's actually what makes sense of the story. So look at verse 24. The rich man looks.

What does he see? Abraham and Lazarus far off. And so he cries out, father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus to dip the finger of his, the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I am in agony in this flame. See how he adds to the picture of just how awful God's judgment is.

It's so awful that he's desperate even for just one drop of water. Abraham replies two things. First, well. Second, verse 26, he says, well no, we can't help you. There's a great chasm between us.

There's no way for us to get to each other. God doesn't allow anyone to pass from heaven to hell or vice versa. Those states are permanent. This life is the time that God gives us to respond to him. After you die, you face judgment and the decision is then final, non reversible.

But second, look at verse 25, Abraham saying, actually rich man, this is right. See, both your experiences on life from earth to the next life have been totally reversed. Lazarus's bad has turned to comfort. Your good has turned to agony. And there's good reason for that.

What's the reason? Well, it comes out in the next part of the conversation. You have to keep following. Look at verse 27, 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 the glue? They have Moses and the prophets.

They should listen to them. Verse 30 makes it clearer. No, Father Abraham, the rich man said, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent. What's the reason that the things have turned out this way for each man? What did the rich man do or not do in life to end up in Hades and 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. He's a judgment warning word. And he didn't hear that word and repent.

He didn't take it to heart. He didn't feel convicted of his sin. He didn't turn to God for grace and mercy. 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 feasting lavishly every day. He didn't love God and he didn't love his neighbour. Did you notice before that the rich man knew Lazarus's name? He knew who he was. He knew that he was the poor destitute man who lay on the street just outside his gate, knew that he was poor and didn't help him, knew that he was hungry and didn't even give him the rubbish, the scraps from his table.

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. In the Old Testament it said, if there is a poor person among you, one of your own brothers within your city gates, do not be hard hearted or tight fisted towards your poor brother.

Instead you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him enough for whatever need he has. It goes on to speak about even more generosity than that. But what did the rich man do every day? He walked straight past Lazarus and did nothing. God's word was clear, but he would not listen.

He refused. He was unwilling. He never repented of his sin. Look at how the conversation finishes. Jesus drives the same point home.

Verse 30. No, Father Abraham, he said, but if someone from the dead goes to them, like Lazarus, they will repent. 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 already have all that they need. They have God's clear and written word about his judgment, about his salvation, about the response of repentance and faith that he calls for.

If they have a hard heart to God's good written, clear word, then even if someone rises from the dead, it won't change them.

So what's the message of Jesus? Parable. It's something like this. Your circumstances in 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.

And remember, he's still speaking to the Pharisees. Why is he telling them this? It's like he's saying, you Pharisees are that rich man. You love money, you love the praise of others. You don't listen to God's law and the prophets.

You don't listen to my message of the kingdom either. You Refuse to listen to God's good and clear word. When it comes to you, you might look moral and righteous, you might say the right things, affirm the right things. But the reality of your heart is you don't love God, you don't love your neighbor unless you repent. Pharisees, Hades, agony, God's judgment is what awaits you.

That's Jesus hard and heavy word to the Pharisees standing before him. And to bring it together, to bring it to today. I think it's worth thinking about our response to such a, such a heavy word, but by thinking about the different kinds of people that it speaks to. See, all along the way we've seen in this passage, Jesus, he's speaking to the Pharisees, to those whose hearts are hard to Jesus and who reject him. He's not speaking to his disciples here.

And part of me hopes and prays that no one here today would have the heart of the Pharisees like we've seen. But another part of me does want there to be people like that there here today, so that you might hear Jesus word to you see, maybe today there are some here who don't want to listen to Jesus or God's Word and repent and turn from their sin. Maybe even those who say, yeah, I'm a Christian and I affirm Christian things. But what about in your heart of hearts are you putting on show? Is actually your heart not listening to God's word, not repentant before him to that person?

Jesus says clearly here, listen, listen and repent. The righteous judgment of God is coming. The results are final. And to fall under the hand of the, the all powerful, all consuming God is a terrifying thing.

The punishment for sin is agony and fire. It's separation from anything and everything that's good. And the worrying thing is that Jesus says that if someone's unwilling to listen and repent to God's word, God's message, Jesus word, then even if someone rises from the dead, that won't change your mind. But maybe, maybe just hearing Jesus word speaking directly to you here and now might just cause you to stop and think and to know their truth and bring you to bow your knee to him and say, I'm a sinner, have mercy on me, forgive me. And if you do, he will.

If you repent and trust in Jesus, he will welcome you and forgive you because he died for you. And God the Father will welcome you with open arms now and into all eternity. So I plead with you to think about that. But what about those who have Done that. Who are disciples who follow Jesus, who've listened to God's word, who've repented, who seek to live a humble life before Him.

How does Jesus speak to us? In one sense, he doesn't. Jesus spoke these weighty words to his enemies. And so the Christian shouldn't be crushed by these words. Warned, yes, Challenged to think about how we might be tempted to be like the Pharisees, sure.

But actually, for those of us who've listened, who have repented, 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 that Jesus gives a name? No other parable, Just this one. Why is that? It's because of what the name Lazarus means.

It means the one God helps. Jesus wasn't speaking to his disciples here, but there is a message for us.

God is your helper.

He loves you and he will help you. And even if your experience in life is like Lazarus, or for that fact, like Jesus, even if you were to experience the poorest, most difficult and painful and awful life that you could, yet you listen to God's Word and repent, then God is your helper. And you'll be welcomed into eternity, to Abraham's side, to heaven, and to a new creation where every tear is wiped away and death and grief and crying and pain are gone. And you only have comfort and joy and peace as you see Jesus face to face, your Lord. Not because there's anything good in us.

Not because we're better in any way than a Pharisee. Not because we're any better for simply opening our hands and admitting our sin and accepting a gift from God. Grace through faith, trusting in Jesus and his death. For us, no. It's simply about trust in him as our helper.

Does Lazarus comfort you? He should. And just to finish, I just think it should make us want to proclaim Jesus more to our world. What do we see in this passage? We see God has chosen to work in his world through His Word, through His written word, shared and proclaimed.

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 His Word, it's powerful to save from our sin and from Hades and judgment and agony. 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. So our job is to keep simply sharing God's word, the gospel, the good news of Jesus, God's truth and pray and trust that his word will do its work in the hearts of people. Let's pray.

Gracious Father, humble us to not be like the Pharisees.

And Lord, teach us to love you, to listen to your word and repent all our days. That we might have the comfort that Lazarus in this passage has of eternity with you because of your great love and forgiveness for us. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.