The Rich Man and Lazarus

The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)

Introduction

Some of you might have received a popular circulated internet article called “Count your blessings”. It reads: “If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 70% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy. If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the millions who will not survive this week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world. If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than three billion people in the world. If your parents are still alive and still married, you are very rare, even in [Australia]. If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because although the majority can, most do not. If you can hold someone’s hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder, you are blessed because you can offer healing touch. If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed that over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all. Have a good day, and count your blessings.”

What can we say then? Obviously we all are some of the richest people in the world!

Throughout the bible, God constantly reminds us to be generous and charitable to the poor, the widows and orphans. In the OT, God is always being described as the God of the widow and fatherless. For instance Deut 10:18 -- He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. Psalm 68: 5 -- A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.

The people of God is also warned to do good to the alien, the fatherless and the widow, for instance, by leaving some sheafs for them when they gather their harvests. Deut 14:29 - so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. Deut 24:19 - When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

In the NT, we are reminded to be generous in giving. Rom 12:13 - Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 2 Cor 9:6 - Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

The Gospel reading today is the story of the rich man and Lazarus. It describes the contrasting lifestyles of the two both in this world and in the next.

1. Some observations

¹⁹"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. ²⁰At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores ²¹and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

a. These 2 versus show the contrast lifestyle of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man (not named) was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. He lived luxuriously every day, not once in a while. We are not told how he gained such wealth and should not think that his richness came from dishonest business practices or by exploiting the poor. The beggar by the name of Lazarus, on the other hand, lived in poverty struck by hunger and physical diseases even dogs came and licked his sores. It seems the rich man did not border Lazarus who begged for food at his gate.

b. The second contrast lies in

²²"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity 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 fire.'

Both the rich man and Lazarus died, but when Lazarus died, the angels carried him to Abraham’s side while the rich man was buried in hell. In hell, the rich man was tormented while Lazarus was rested peacefully in Abraham’s bosom. The rich man was in severe agony, burning by hell fire, pleaded to have Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue. Yet this simplest request was not granted due to the eternal separation in between him and Lazarus. c. The third contrast was about their eternal destinations.

²⁵"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. ²⁶And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

The worse scar the rich man had was the memory of his luxurious and sinful lifestyle that cost him his eternal fellowship with God. In between Abraham and the rich man is a great chasm fixed. No one can cross to the other side. One is eternal blessing in Abraham’s bosom. The other is eternal damnation in the fire of hell.

d. The contrast between faith and reason

²⁷"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, ²⁸for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' ²⁹"Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' ³⁰" 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' ³¹"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "

The rich man realised his eternal destination was horrible and wish that his 5 still alive brothers will not come to the same place. He pleaded Abraham to send Lazarus to warn them. Marvellously Abraham replied him by saying that they have Moses and the Prophets. To Abraham, only if the people listen and believed in the Law and Prophets, they will be saved. That is all about faith. But to the rich man, he tried to reason out by saying “a person rose from the death might be able to convince them not to sin.” What an ambiguous reasoning and rational attempt. The answer from Abraham was clear: “If they don’t believe in the Law and the Prophets, nothing will help, not even a miracle such as a man rose from the dead.” Only a little simple faith is needed for our salvation through Christ.

2. What are the lessons?

a. Blessing is not counted by in terms of what you possessed but by how your possessions could be a blessing to others. The rich man here was described as a person dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. Purple fine linen was very costly in those days as the purple dye was obtained from a kind of shell-fish, a little drop from each. Woollen garments dyed with it were worn by kings and nobles. This kind of purple robe formed the outer, and the linen the inner garment. Accordingly, fine linen was produced from flax, which grew on the banks of the Nile. It was dazzlingly white, and worth twice its weight in gold. No hinge for us to conclude that his richness came in by fraud business practices or by oppressing others. But here we see how a man who might have a great deal of the wealth, pomp, and pleasure of this world, yet perish for ever under God's wrath and curse. The sin of this rich man was his providing for himself only. He had no concern of people surrounding him. Probably he did not border the prompting of the Spirit of God urging him to do good to others.

2. There is no grey area in between eternal death and blessing. The rich man was buried and sent to hell while Lazarus was taken by the angel to the bosom of Abraham. In between them there was a gap which no one could cross from one side to the other. The separation was clear cut. There is no place for in between.

The rich man was sent to hell not because of his richness but because of his lack of God’s grace. The evidence was clear: he did not experience the grace of God so much so that he had no grace to show to Lazarus. On the other hand, Lazarus was taken to the bosom of Abraham not because he was poor but God sent his angel to pick him up. It was not the merits of Lazarus that made God show his mercy. It was the nature of God to show his grace.

3. Faith in Christ supersedes all worldly evidences. The rich man pleaded Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers not to follow his footsteps which were evil in God’s eyes. Abraham replied that if they don’t believe in Moses, even someone rose from the dead would not be able to convince them to repent. Obviously, unbelief is due, not to a lack of evidence, but to a faithless heart. The greatest miracle will have no effect on those who are determined not to believe. The seat of scepticism is in the moral nature.

Conclusion

It is not a sin to be rich or seeking wealth in the right manner. It is sinful only if we are self-centred and care for nobody else. Similarly to be poor does not make us righteous before God. Righteousness before God is based on our dependency upon Him. At the grave, money, fame and our whole self, rich or poor, strong or weak, all but become helpless and worthless while only the grace of God counts. As Matthew 5:3 says – Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Be on guard on how you use your richness and possessions. Everything comes from God and so we need to learn how to make the best out from our possessions for God’s glory and honour. Remember, you are the top 8% of the richest people of the world. Please stress out your arm to help and welcome people who are in need of food, shelter, clean water and medicines. Let me end with these words from Paul in 2 Cor 9:7-9: Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." Amen.

Jesus Saves

(Luke 15:1-10)

Introduction

When I was a boy, one day we found our younger brother missing. Everyone including the neighbours was worry and tried searching for him. Hours later we found him hiding under grandma’s bed sleeping. We woke him up and asked him what’d happened. He confessed that he has stolen a bit of grandma’s alcohol and drunkard for few hours. Though that was a bit jokily, it was still a happy ending.

But life is not always easy. On another day years later we found this same younger brother missing not for few hours but did not come home overnight. That was the time while I was in my first year of theological training. During one of the morning classes, my sister called me and wanted me to go searching for our brother. I ranged his office and his colleagues said he did not turn up for work. I ranged some of his close friends and they had no ideas where he was. I went to the local police station to ask for help and was told that I need to make a report only 24 hours after we first found him missing. However the police advised me to go to the hospital for a search thinking that he might have met an accident and was admitted to hospital.

I went to the hospital and did a search. Finally one of the hospital staffs led me to the mortuary wanted me to recognise whether that young man who died in an accident a day before was my brother. The mortuary was just tens of meters away from the front desk. But my steps were heavy; my heart was beating madly in between. That was one the worse experiences in my life to see my beloved brother lying dead coldly. This time again, we found him but not alive. What a tragedy!

Today gospel passage has two “finding” stories. One is about finding a lost sheep while the other a lost coin. Of course there is a third story of the lost son from verse 11 onwards. All these stories emphasise the urgency of finding something or someone and the happiness of the one who found them.

1. Some observations

When I read these parables, I realised the lost “things” were first an animal, the second a thing and the third a human being.

a. In the parable of the lost sheep we see that out of a hundred sheep, the owner lost one. Some might think that one out of a hundred was not a big deal. But it was about empathetic feeling over the lost of an animal just like feeling for your rabbit, your puppy or your kitten while they are in trouble. This man could feel the pain of the sheep which was missing. He left the rest and tried to look for this lost one. The story was one with a happy ending. He found the lost sheep and then happy celebrated with his friend. One thing about a sheep: it baas. That would help the owner to find it following its sound track.

b. In the parable of a lost coin the owner too, like the one who found his lost sheep, celebrated with his friends after he found it. That showed how precious the coin was to the owner. It might not be of much value in terms of market value but certainly precious to him. We also realised that a coin could not make noise like a sheep does. When a coin is out from your sight, most likely it is somewhere hiding. It could be under a bed or a cupboard. The owner was desperate to find it. He lightened a lamp for the search and finally got it.

c. In the parable of the lost son, we are told that this son was desperately wanted to have his share of the heritage from his father. Once he’s got what he wanted, he left for his dream life in the city where he lost everything and was stricken with hunger. In his hunger, he had no choice but to work in a pig farm for living. You can imagine how shameful it could be for a Jew working in a pig farm. Jesus described this man longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. At that very devastating moment, his sense came back and eventually made a 180 degree turning. He decided to say sorry to his father and wanted to start all over again. The happy ending was that the father accepted him and celebrated with his friends a huge feast. What a happy ending too.

2. What are the lessons?

These three parables indicate the salvation planning of the Trinitarian God.

a. In the parable of the lost sheep, the Good Shepherd our Lord Jesus Christ went forth to search for the lost sheep. Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost. (Luke 19:10). He said, “I am the gate for the sheep.….whoever enters through me will be saved….I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (John 10). Not only that, Jesus is the only way, only truth and only life. No one goes to the Father except through Him. (John 14:6). Only in the bosom of Jesus the Good Shepherd, we will be comforted. Psalm 23 describes how beautiful it can be when we lie in the bosom of the Good Shepherd. In the midst of thirst and hunger, He makes us lie down in green pastures, and leads us beside quiet waters. Sometimes we are in situation as though we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death, yet we fear no evil, because the Lord is with us; His rod and His staff comfort us. Most of all, the Lord has prepared an eternal resting place for us. His death on the cross released us from the curse of death which separates us from the presence of God.

b. Secondly, in the parable of the lost coin, the owner lighted a lamp in searching of it. The lamp in this case indicates the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit convicts us deep in our conscience. Whether we hide ourselves under the bed or cupboard, the Holy Spirit is able to find us. The Psalmist said in Psalm 139:7-8, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” Jonah was supposed to be a missionary to Nineveh. He tried to escape from the Lord’s calling by sailing away. Yet God sent a big fish to consume him and he repented. Ananias and his wife Sapphira tried to hide their possession by lying to the Apostle Peter. The Holy Spirit convicted them and both were stricken to death. We have nowhere to hide from the Holy Spirit.

c. Thirdly, the Parable of the lost son (or the prodigal son) indicates the embrace love of the Heavenly Father. We noted that the father was waiting and waiting for the son to return. This is exactly the nature of a loving father. Went the son returned from his devastated life, the father ordered to have the best robe on him and a ring on his finger and so on. That shows the unconditional love of the father. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).

Conclusion

God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit is searching for us sinners to repent and be saved. The lost sheep perhaps was accidently fell from a cliff while looking for greener field. The lost coin perhaps just slipped out from the wallet of the owner. The lost son perhaps was too passionate and lustful on the worldly possessions. Whatever it is, they finally returned to the one who loved them.

Repent and return is therefore the keyword of salvation in Christ Jesus. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9).

In closing, I would like to read from 1 John 3:4-10

“Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.”

I would encourage all of you to ponder over this call from God for you to repent and renounce all evils. Being a pastor, I have helped many people to be set free from all sorts of bondages including alcoholic, drug abused, gambling addiction, ungodly sexual behaviours, demonic obsessions etc.

If you or your friends are in need of special prayer, please do not hesitate to make arrangement with me. Jesus saves all sinners and the Holy Spirit is powerful. May God set you free.

Count the Cost in Following Christ

Luke 14:25-33

²⁵Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: ²⁶"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

²⁸"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? ²⁹For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, ³⁰saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'

³¹"Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³²If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. ³³In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

Introduction

Many years ago I led a family to Christ in a mission campaign.

This poor family had few children attending school far away from their village.

Every morning the local authority will send a school bus to pick them and other children to school for free.

When the authority found that this family embraced Christian faith, they began to change their own rules by charging them bus fares.

Eventually the family was threatened to pay bus fares or to give up Christianity!

When I heard that the parents decided to hold on to the Christian faith and gave up education because they have no money to pay bus fares, I just could not control my tears.

In the same village, many Christians faced similar situations.

They were bullied and persecuted in one way or another.

However those hardships did not stop them from coming to the Lord.

Neither those difficulties stop us preaching the gospel to them.

In order to help these new Christians, we bought a van and sent a Church worker to bring them to school and even gave them free tuitions.

Further on we built a wooden church for them.

The story did not stop there.

Months later, the wooden church was being torn down by anti-Christian mobs.

These mobs came from other villages belong to the faith of the majority.

After much prayer, we decided to bring this issue to the higher authority through Christian organisations.

Thank God after some months, a local court summoned these mobs to recompense the church double the building cost.

Eventually we rebuilt the church with bricks instead of a wooden one like the former.

These things happened in the villages of the native people, the aborigines in Malaysian Peninsular.

I can tell you stories after stories about how much cost some people had to pay in order to follow Christ.

1. Message Today

In today’s gospel reading, we see the challenges ahead of those who wish to follow Christ.

These challenges given by Christ were not exclusively few but much to do with the principles lie behind.

a. Firstly, Jesus said you must leave your family in order to follow him.

During the time of Jesus’ ministry, the disciples did not feel the tension or smell anything about persecution.

But Jesus forewarned them the time would come where there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three.

They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. (Luke 12:52-53).

The leaving from families became not a voluntary action but many a times were helpless decisions to be made.

I knew of a Chinese brother who was imprisoned for at least 3 times because of his faith in Christ.

During one of his imprisonments, the police broke his knees.

The church members took him home and prayed for him.

He was miraculously healed 3 months later.

When I met him in a trip in China, he told me that he had been away from home for years only to escape more persecution from the police.

He had to run from one place to another and did not see his family for years.

Many such stories are taking place in the remote areas of China and other countries where Christianity is seem to be a threat to the authorities or people of other faiths.

b. Secondly, Jesus said that you must love him more than anyone or anything else.

We should not misunderstand that Jesus wants us to be hateful to our dear ones.

Here is a way of expressing the contrast of different standard of love.

The love we love Christ should supersede everything and comparatively so much so that your love towards others including your dear ones is much out bitten.

Loving Christ does not mean the abandonment of affection with people.

Instead, it is a paradox while a person embraces the love of Christ while abandoning the love of all others, he or she would embrace much more love than before.

Here is the example of the Apostle Paul.

He loved Christ so much and considered all things as rubbish. (Phil 3:8)

At the end, Paul gained more friendship than ever.

Look at the friendship between Paul and Philemon and Onesimus.

Onesimus was once useless to both Philemon and Paul.

But then he became useful. (Philemon 11).

It is believed that Onesimus was a ran away slave to Philemon.

He transgressed against Philemon and fled to the site of Paul’s imprisonment to escape punishment for a theft he had committed.

He then heard the Gospel from Paul and converted to Christ.

Paul urged Philemon to reconcile with Onesimus.

That showed the strong bond of love within the Christian faith.

The Chinese brother I met more about 15 years ago has been faithful preaching the gospel to hundreds of people.

Together with other faithful workers of the Lord, they formed another huge family of Christ in gospel action.

This is the paradox: you gave up and therefore you embraced.

c. Thirdly, carry your cross and follow Christ.

Two issues were emphasised here.

One is to carry a cross.

That denotes a cost to be counted.

Secondly is to carry your own cross.

No one should let down his own cross nor should anyone carry someone else crosses.

Each person has his own cross to carry.

A story was told about a man who complained about his cross and wanted to have a change.

With permission he chose a lighter and shorter cross for himself.

In his heavenward route there comes a gap where he needs to use his cross as a bridge to cross over.

The real test comes by as he realised that cross he chose was too short and could not reach the other end of the gap.

In his furious, there comes the angel bringing the right cross for him.

This original cross finally enabled him to cross over.

This is an analogy about carrying our own cross, not others’.

2. What are the lessons?

How can we Australian Christians to be disciples of Christ?

What does it mean to us to hate our family in order to follow Christ?

We are not in the first century of Christendom where believers were persecuted by the Jews and Romans.

Neither are we like the Christian brothers and sisters in many third world countries facing different degrees and levels of persecutions.

Somehow the message is clear.

Whether we like it or not, we are in an era where the Christian faith is fading away due to secularism.

Sometimes we loved our cultures so much and we dare not to “hate” them.

Sometimes we are so protective to our social and political behaviours and we wish not to stand up and make our voices heard.

Bills against Christian ethics and biblical teachings have been passing by the authorities, one by one and bit by bit.

The rising of humanism overshadowed the authority of God’s word.

As Paul described, “…the secret power of lawlessness is already at work…” (2 Thess 2:7).

People are getting use to all these lawlessness and don’t feel the urgency.

That is to say we are comfortably enjoy our lives and wish not to be disturbed and so therefore would not disturb others.

The end result of such attitudes is only one - dropped dead.

Let us count the cost and follow Christ.

Do not think that you are able to continue to survive in your comfort zones.

If you do not shake the world, the world is going to shake you.

Christchurch NZ had severe earthquake early morning yesterday.

Thank God there was no serious casualty.

But let us think in terms of the spiritual earthquake in our minds, our families, our societies and the nations.

To stop spiritual earthquake taking place, we need to practice spiritual paradox: shake before you are shaken.

Shake the people around you before you are shaken by them.

Many years ago, when I challenge the church leaders to consider reaching out to some native people groups, the answer from one of the leaders was, “Don’t disturb them!”

He was trying to say, “let them continue to be in their spiritual poverty as well as physical poverty!”

Of course I did not stop there.

Eventually we managed to bring hundreds of people to Christ through our mission campaign.

Conclusion

Cane toads are not welcome in Australia.

I heard documentary of how people kill them by wrapping them in plastic bags and put them into a freezer.

These toads in freezer will not feel pain but lose conscious and died eventually.

Similarly if we put a frog in a pot of water and start boiling it, the frog will not struggle as the water becoming warmer eventually boiled.

Satan has been doing the same tricks to humankinds.

The more we submerge into our so called comfort zones, guess what?

We would be cook unconsciously.

As today is my first Sunday as a rector of St Marks, I would like to challenge you to forget what you are comfortable with and walk with me and straining toward what is ahead, and press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.

These are familiar words of Paul from Phil 3:13-14.

After much prayer, I intend to reach out to the Chinese working class immigrants in the near future.

This will involve a lot of human and financial resources.

Therefore I covet your prayers and supports in one way or another.

I know you have your own cross to carry.

But if you think you want to walk the way of the cross together with me, you are welcome.

May God grant you strength and courage for his glory and honour.

Amen.