This
week we are looking at the tenth statement that comprises our doctrinal
statement as a church, which addresses what we believe as a church when it
comes to how our response to Jesus determines our eternal destiny.
Yesterday,
we looked at what we believe about how we can experience the forgiveness and a
relationship with the God we were created for, which is referred to as the
gospel. We talked about the reality that God loved, God gave, so that those who believe and place their confident
trust in and follow Jesus as Lord and Leader would receive life in relationship
with Him.
We looked at
the reality that Jesus wanted Nicodemus to clearly understand that all of
humanity stands condemned to an eternity apart from God as a result of our selfishness
and rebellion. Jesus wanted Nicodemus to clearly understand that rescue from
selfishness and rebellion was not based on what we did for God, but in trusting
in what God was doing through Jesus, who entered into humanity as the
culmination of God’s Divine plan to provide an opportunity for forgiveness and
restoration.
And as a church, we believe that God
commands humanity to respond to the claims of Christ and the message of the
gospel. We believe that all humanity is responsible for their response to the
question “Who is Jesus”. We believe that all humanity is responsible for their
response to Jesus message and teachings and His offer to rescue us from our
selfishness and rebellion so that we can experience forgiveness and the
relationship with God we were created for. We see this reality revealed for us
in the next section of this statement, which says “We believe that
God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world.”
Today I
want us to look at a common objection that I often hear at this point, which
sounds something like this: “Well Dave what about the people who never had the
opportunity to hear about Jesus? What about the people around the world who
never read the Bible? How can God hold the pygmy in Africa accountable for
something that he has never been exposed to?
That is
a great question. All of humanity will be responsible for their actions and
their response to God based on the amount of revelation that they have received
about God. Regardless of the level of our exposure to the claims of
Christ or the message and teachings of the Bible, our consciences testify and
provide evidence of our guilt or innocence.
Whether it is the American who listens to Christian radio
and podcasts and has five Bibles scattered around their home, or the pigmy who
lives in the jungles of Africa, all will stand before Jesus to give an account
of their lives. And as all humanity stands before Jesus, it will be our
consciences that will testify as to our guilt or innocence when it comes to how
we lived our lives. For the pigmy who lived in the jungle of Africa, they will
be judged based on the amount of revelation they received when it came to God’s
existence and standards. They will be judged based on how they responded to the
law of God that was written on their hearts.
If they lived a life that perfectly followed that
internal standard as testified by their conscience, they will be declared not
guilty. However, if they selfishly rebelled against God’s law that was written
in their hearts, their conscience will testify against them the moment it
happened and again when they stand before Jesus. And it is the testimony of the
conscience that will provide the evidence of their guilt.
You see, God is perfectly just and right. He treats
everybody the same way. Everyone will be held accountable based on the amount
of revelation about God they received. For those who never read a Bible or
heard the message of the gospel, they will be held accountable for how they
respond to God’s general revelation of Himself through the creation and through
their conscience. For those who have received God’s special revelation in the
form of the letter that make up the Bible and exposure to the claims of Christ
and the message of the gospel throughout history, they will be responsible for
their response to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. And the
standard is the same for all: perfection.
And based on the verdict of that judgment by God, all
humanity will spend eternity in one of two places. This is what is meant by the
next section of this statement, “assigning the unbeliever to condemnation
and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and
joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth”. We see Jesus reveal this reality in a section
of an account if His life in the Bible called the gospel of Luke. So let’s look
at this section together, beginning in Luke 16:19:
Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine
linen, joyously living in splendor every day. "And a poor man named
Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with
the crumbs which were falling
from the rich man's table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his
sores.
Here we see
Jesus telling the crowds listening to Him a parable. Now a parable is an
earthly story that was designed to reveal a deeper spiritual truth. Jesus was
telling this parable in response to an encounter that He had with a group of
people who were known as the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a group of self
righteous religious people who thought they were better than others because of
all the things that they did for God. As Jesus was teaching the crowds that
were following Him about money, these self righteous religious people began to
ridicule Jesus message and teachings about money because they were lovers of
money. And it was in this context that Jesus told this earthly story that
revealed a deeper spiritual truth.
In this
parable there were two men. One of the men was wealthy and without a care in
the world. By contrast, the second man, who Jesus named Lazarus, who was a poor
cripple who could not move, even to get away from dogs who were licking at his
wounds. Can you imagine how desperate and how dependant this man who have had
to be on others?
And in the
Jewish culture of the first century, the rich man appeared to be the one who
was blessed by God, while Lazarus appeared to be cursed by God. And every day,
the rich man would walk past Lazarus without helping Lazarus, while Lazarus
suffered and was tormented by hunger and dogs that he could not escape from.
Jesus then continues His parable in verse 22:
"Now the poor man died and was
carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and
was buried. "In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw
Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. "And he cried out and said,
'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip
of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this
flame.'
Now to fully understand what Jesus is
communicating here, we first need to understand a few terms and phrases that
Jesus uses here. First, we need to understand what Jesus means when He says
that “the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom.”
In the Jewish culture of the first century, Abraham’s bosom was a place of
blessing and represented Abraham’s reception of the faithful into the presence
of God in Heaven. Jesus point here is that the poor man, after he died was
welcomed into the presence of God in Heaven.
Jesus then explained that the rich man also died
and was buried. Now this leads us to the second phrase that we need to
understand, which is what is Jesus referring to when He says that the rich man "In
Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment”. In the Jewish culture of the
first century, Hades referred to the place where the selfish and rebellious
dead go and await final judgment by God for their selfishness and rebellion.
Hades could be considered “Hell’s waiting room”.
In this parable, we see that both men were
conscious of the fate quickly. In addition, while there is a sense of distance
between the two men, both Lazarus and the rich man know where each other were.
The rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus over to bring him some water. While
awaiting the final judgment of humanity from God, the rich man, who was in
Hells waiting room, was hoping to get some relief from the torment he was
receiving while waiting for the final judgment of humanity. And as Jesus
continues His parable, we see Abraham’s response to the rich man in verse 25:
"But Abraham said, 'Child,
remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise
Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.
'And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that
those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there
to us.'
Jesus explained to the crowds listening that
Abraham basically said to the rich man, “you had a wrinkle free life on earth.
You were wealthy and without a care in the world and yet you did not care for
those who were experiencing trouble on earth. The reason why you are where you
are is the result of how you lived your life while on earth. And as a result of
how you lived your life on earth, you are where you are for the rest of
eternity.”
You see, the rich man was in Hades for his lack of
response to God and the things of God during his life on earth. And now that
his life on earth was over, his fate has been determined. The rich man’s
selfishness and rebellion that led him to love his money instead of loving God
and the people created in the image of God so as to hoard his wealth instead of
being generous revealed the reality that he was not living in relationship with
God.
And as a result of rejecting God here on earth,
the rich man would spend eternity apart from God. And as the realization of an
eternity of conscious punishment for a life of selfishness and rebellion began
to roll over the rich man like a tidal wave, Jesus records the rich man’s
response to Abraham in Luke 16:27:
"And he said, 'Then I beg you,
father, that you send him to my father's house-- for I have five brothers-- in
order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of
torment.' "But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them
hear them.' "But he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them
from the dead, they will repent!' "But he said to him, 'If they do not
listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone
rises from the dead.'"?
Jesus explained that the rich man begged Abraham to send
the poor man to his five brothers, who also loved their money instead of loving
God and the people created in the image of God, to warn them to change the
trajectory of their lives that was moving away from God back to God. Abraham
however responded to the rich man’s request by denying his request.
Instead, Abraham reminded to rich man that his brothers
had the message and teachings of God in the Old Testament to point them to God
and their need of God. Jesus then explained that the rich man believed that if
his brothers saw the miraculous return of the poor man from the dead, that they
would see their need for God and turn back to God. However, Abraham explained
to the rich man that if they do not see their need for God and to turn back to
God from the letters that make up the Old Testament, they will not see their
need for God or to turn back to God even if someone rose from the dead.
And a short while
after telling this parable, Jesus died on the cross for the selfishness and
rebellion of humanity and was risen from the dead as a result of God’s
transformational and supernatural activity. And in spite of that reality, for
2,000 years humanity has still refused to see their need for God or to turn
back to God.
However, as we
discovered a few weeks ago, there will be a time in the future when Jesus will
return. And at that return all humanity will be held accountable for
all eternity for their response to the question “Who is Jesus”. All humanity
will be held accountable for all eternity for their response to Jesus message
and teachings and His offer to rescue us from our selfishness and rebellion so
that we can experience forgiveness and the relationship with God we were
created for. We see this reality in one of the final
sections of the final letter that is recorded for us in the Bible, called the
book of Revelation.
Friday, we will
look at this section together…
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