Luke (Session 16) Chapter 16

chapter 16 of the book of luke is one of the pro most provocative chapters in the bible it certainly is one of the most provocative chapters in the book of luke it deals with two topics and both of them are quite challenging just to give you a background here we've been going through a section from chapters 14 to 18 which really are almost like a sampling of a day in life in christ's life as they go from galilee to on the way to jerusalem and in chapter 14 we had the pharisees dinner the man with dropsy and a number of lessons that came out of that area and then chapter 15 about how god cares and seeks three things the lost calling the lost sheep the prodigal son that's what we did last time this time we're going to take an issue of stewardship we're talking about the unrighteous steward and also the rich man and lazarus most of what we think we know about the afterlife comes from this chapter you'll find it very provocative and then after that we'll go to some other things next chapter and then chapter 18 we have persistence in prayer and that that will then conclude this section because in chapter 19 we are in jerusalem the triumphal entry and then that follows the final week and the wrap-up it's the big climax of the book of course okay question gang are you ready to die you know the statistics on death are quite impressive it's 100 do you know that as david hawking likes to point out we're all going to die on time there's an appointed time not only god knows but are you ready for that you know when you're young when you're in your 20s or 30s you know you're immortal you don't think much about it but when you get to the twilight years you think a great deal about that what happens when you die everyone lets you do a very little great little book 15 minutes after death what happens which is his way of getting into that subject does an excellent job by the way it's a neat little book much of what we think we know about this subject comes from this chapter the subjects we're talking about are all through the bible but they're codified here with a clarity that is going to be very engaging this chapter includes two parables about wealth and also the right and wrong of riches they're actually both about that one actually much larger than that two parables the first is commonly called the unrighteous steward and when you engage the parable you can understand why it's called that but i want you to keep a footnote in your mind that he may not have been as unrighteous as we presume and one of the lessons if you've been in business affect the business of life you want to guard against presumption every story you hear every situation you encounter has more than one side to it and very often we jump to conclusions that may not be warranted and this could be one of those it won't change our insight too much so i'm not going to go off into a weird margin here but i want you to recognize that there are judgments here that meet may need to be re-examined and i'll get to that as we go and this was again spoken primarily to the disciples it really wasn't a public discourse so it's really deals with a parable but the second parable is not really a parable it's an actual incident and it was addressed to the pharisees because of their response to the first parable it technically is not a parable the rich man and lazarus is not a parable because in parables they're just rhetorical devices this one has a name this one actually happened it's descriptive an actual event we need to keep that in mind as we go and so the first 13 verses will be out about the unrighteous steward the last 13 verses will focus on this whole other subject here so in luke chapter 16 verse 1 and the lord he he said unto his disciples there was a certain rich man which had a steward and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods now notice a couple of things here the rich man is the master he's the owner of the property like that and the steward is his general manager he's the guy running it for him okay notices he's accused hasn't been proven yet but he's been accused that he wasted his cover his his master's goods got the picture so far okay steward is just a financ what we would call a financial manager response for managing apparently a very large estate a steward must serve his master faithfully first corinthians 4 2. is required of stewards to be faithful and by the way we have a whole briefing pack on that called be being faithful in a faithless world in that we talk about ephesians 6 not the armor of god part but the there is to get ahead of that what the duty of a christian is to be it explains what a fiduciary really is most people don't realize that see in common law there are two kinds of relationships in business there's two basic kinds one is what's called an arm's length relationship that's the typically the relationship between a buyer and a seller it's the most most commercial relationships are of that kind a fiduciary relationship is a different kind and it's the kind of relationship between a doctor and his patient or the attorney's client the fiduciary relationship is one in which the professional puts the client's needs and interests ahead of himself okay it's a very different kind of relationship and by the way there's a great deal of law and ethics surrounding the definitions there and how that needs to be acquitted and i'm sparing you the long version of this if you're interested in this we do go into it in great detail in our ephesians commentary in ephesians chapter 6. the professional fiduciary puts the other person's interests ahead of his own is that's the concept okay it's important for you to understand that not because you're a professional but because you're christ's because he calls you to a fiduciary relationship to your employer if you're an hourly employer of just a laborer you owe your boss 60 minutes for every hour worked period that's it if you are a manager or in any way a fiduciary of that enterprise you are committed to guard its secrets your guard its interests guard its customer lists there's a a bunch of things that obligations you have and the point is christ expects us to act as a fiduciary to our employer even if we're not managers that's a big difference there are things that a christian can't do that a normal employee can do without violating anything not a christian laborers arms relationship managers directors executives are a fiduciary to that to their employer christians are called to be fiduciaries that's in ephesians chapter 6 verses 5 through 9. keep passage and every christian needs to understand that and i was tempted to get into this a little bit but then we won't have the time for the other material so i'm going to assume you've already studied ephesians 6 or if not you can go there and dig into it we should thank god for all that we have and use it as he directs and that's what even with deuteronomy 8 the thief says what's yours is mine i'll take it the selfish person says what's mine is mine i'll keep it that's a close cousin isn't it the christian should say what's mine is a gift from god i'll share it there's a difference in attitude to all three okay well let's get to verse two that's that's that's all verse one okay move on here and so this master the the guy in the parable here called his steward and said unto him how is it that i hear this of thee give an account of thy stewardship for thou mayest be no longer steward he hasn't fired him yet he just raises the issue that he might be fired he's calling for an audit okay got the picture so far okay this is interesting as each of us will face an audit of our stewardship romans 14 but especially second corinthians 5 1 and following we will all appear we're talking to christians we'll all appear before the judgment seat of christ and give a reckoning of our stewardship boy boy boy none of our salvation that's been taken care of at the cross everybody before the bema seat of christ is saved the issue is what have they done with it who if we have been faithful the lord will give us his commendation and reward matthew 25 first corinthians 4 and so forth if we have not been faithful we will lose those blessings but will still be saved don't confuse the issue first corinthians 3 lays that all out okay in your bible chapter in revelation two and three there are seven epistles that are often overlooked how many epistles in the testament twenty one no no there's twenty eight there's seven you always overlooked written by christ himself the seven letters to seven churches and those are interesting because they are a report card of those seven churches and as we study that passage carefully we know that they all apply to each of us independent of a church you go to they have a personal application they have a church application they were literal churches in those days there's also a prophetic profile they present but each church that received jesus letter was surprised the ones that thought they were doing well were not the ones that didn't think they were doing very well were doing better than they thought everyone was surprised that should humble us each one is also addressed to each of us personally each one of those seven letters have an implication for every one of us each one also highlights a reward to the overcomer you're saved great jesus did that what have you done with it are you an overcomer are you overtaken and that's my wife and i wrote a book on that called the kingdom power and glory it's very controversial whenever you call to call for accountability people chafe at that verse three then the steward said within himself what shall i do for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship i cannot dig and to beg i am ashamed almost sounds like that passage in proverbs 30. the guy prays to god please don't i don't want to be rich i don't want to be poor i don't want to be poor because i'm you know don't don't have to dig i don't want to be rich because i might forget you interesting and or i don't wanna i don't i'm gonna be poor because i may be tempted to steal and take your name in vain the demonstration of the taking the name is an ambassadorship issue not a vocabulary issue but anyway notice something else here as we go here the stewart said within himself this is this jesus is sharing the apparent thoughts of this person what shall i do for my lord when he says my lord that he's talking about his boss many people miss later on when the lord commendeth him it's not our lord it's his boss that commands him because it uses the term lord it's amazing as i study commentaries dozens of them how many people miss that they think it's the lord that but notice here the term my lord is this this is the steward thinking of his boss what shall i do for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship i cannot dig and to beg i'm ashamed okay i get we can relate to that right i'm resolved what to do that when i am put out of my of stewardship they may receive me into their houses that they being the customers that they serve okay so he called every one of his lord's debtors again see the word lord is referring to his boss don't get confused later so he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him and said unto the first how much owest thou unto my lord he said a hundred measures of oil he said take thy bill and sit down quickly and write fifty you see what he's doing the debtor thinks he owes a hundred barrels of oil and he okays that he only owes 50. why is he doing that to ingratiate himself to that account so when he's fired he might have a friend out there got the picture now most people reading this and that's most commentators take for granted he's a crook that the steward is cheating by writing down his master's receivables that's possible that's the first impression i'm going to come back to that as we go here i think there's a lesson here apart from the content of the story is that every one of us that have been in business need to remember you never have the whole story very rarely do you have all the facts you need you often have to just deal with the facts you have in real life but you should always make allowance for that which you don't know every story has two sides and there are deep this is a summary there are details of business practices that are not disclosed here in the very simplistic model here and we can keep it there is that this guy's doing something inappropriate that's crooked not necessarily we don't know what the trade practices were the difference that he's writing down might have been his entitlement as the steward his commission a form of a sense of usury and that may be he may have been writing off his part of the deal it isn't we don't know that there are some of the earliest commentators way back that picked up on that but that's a possibility because we just don't know enough about the mechanics of commercial practice at that time so we wanted to be cautious there then said he to another how much thou and this other guy says a hundred measures of wheat he said him take thy bill and write four score so he writes it he writes it it down by twenty what uh twenty percent twenty 20 again it's a different percentage different material it's possible and i'm not selling this idea i just want to open your understanding that that what he the difference the 20 percent might have been the steward's entitlement in the transaction what he may be giving away is his own participation he may not necessarily be cheating his boss that's the presumption everybody makes even jayver and mcgee i was surprised well he missed a couple of things about this by the way but because i always i enjoy him so much i always check him first but fortunately with computers and stuff you can go through 100 commentaries in a few hours and and get some different perspectives and the lord commended now the lord here isn't jesus necessarily nine out of ten commentators presumably saying the lord commanded they mean jesus commanded him well jesus is presenting the parable yes but the word lord here may refer to the guy's boss the lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely okay now the word unjust here is what colors this and why most people assume the guy's a crook maybe maybe not because you've done wisely for the children of this world or in their generation wiser than the children of light in other words people that are hard and trade practices often do things that are smarter than people who are naive but we okay now now jesus shifts he says now i say unto you make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations wow that verse 9 has to be a tough verse to deal with because your first reaction is jesus is commending behavior that's crooked not exactly not exactly he's he's saying that this guy was smart because what he was doing he was using his present position to to gain favor in his next job so to speak and uh there are places where that's considered corruption there are other places when that's the normal trade practice and we don't know the practice of that day frankly but the main lesson here is very clear in any case make for yourselves friends of the man of righteousness that when he fail ye may they may receive you in everlasting habitations and so how are you going to apply this in your life you know if we were breaking up into discussion groups in a typical classroom it's going to be a fascinating discussion how are you going to apply this what do you take away from this teaching by lord jesus that will apply to your life boy you're going to get pretty sharp creator no no no no no what do you do and so that's see they say you can't take it with you you know that's that's not true all my life you can't take it with you you can't take it you're gonna go to you can't take it with you when you go to heaven yes you can and this parable tells you how there are certain countries that if you go to that country you better have the money of that country in your pocket so you go to a bank or exchanger before you get there to change your money because you need to have in some place you've really got to be sure you have the coin of the realm right heaven's the same way the way you take care take it with you is to send it ahead let's send it ahead okay set it up ahead if you have resources here you can apply them in such a way as to enhance your situation then because there is a concept of inheritance there are rewards inheritance all kinds and you can take it with you if you if you have means if you have resources that are that are available you can manage those to gain uh points so to speak uh when you get to heaven and that's that i think and i'd lean that i would lean my justification of that to this parable jesus is not teaching that his disciples should be dishonest for heaven's sakes of course not he was teaching that they should use their present material opportunities for their future spiritual benefit indeed indeed this was a good lesson from what some people regarded as a bad example okay the example may not be as bad as we've been taught because of our lack of understanding of practices then and by the way there's no evidence that the guy was fired in the first place he was accused and he feathered his bed on that basis and the boss may have been so impressed that we don't know what came out of that but jesus goes on to teach us in verse 10 he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much if therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon who will commit your trust to the true riches you know would you want to be a good steward on both sides and this leads to the whole concept of a fiduciary and by the way the greek word for producer is corninos cornelia house is named in that spirit paul was very careful that everything was honest not only in the sight of the lord but also the sight of men that's important you see there's a you want to avoid even the appearance of evil there are many people that refrain from doing something that's lawful simply because they don't want other people to stumble lots of examples that throughout the scripture if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's who shall give you that which is your own no servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve god and mammon there are at least three lessons here regarding living among non-believers in a non-believing world that's what we're dealing with here right lesson number one we should use our resources to win people into the kingdom you know there are churches that have enormous balance sheets some churches have huge huge reserves and no debt and there are members on that board that they're not listening to they're saying we should be using that for evangelism we should be putting it to work not accumulating a balance sheet she said the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than the people of the light and that's certainly true see the dishonest manager people of this world sought to make his life more comfortable and he happened to do so cleverly it was his cleverness that was commanded lesson one we should use our resources to win people in kingdom disciples the people of light should act rudely wisely not dishonestly they should exploit worldly wealth you see one reason that a christian tries to accumulate wealth is to have resources to do ministry things and i know many of them very wealthy people have been very very successful in their business but motivated in order to have resources to help discipleships and scholarships and whatever we should use our resources to win people in the kingdom jesus also used the word wealth mammon or riches when he affirmed that one cannot serve both god and love of wealth for its own sake there's nothing wrong with wealth it's the love of wealth it's the danger point in verse 9 jesus said that one is to use wealth not store it up or be a servant of it it's very important that the money don't own you should be the disciples servant not vice versa and that's the risk of course wealth should be used to gain friends is what part of one of the lessons there the disciples would then be welcomed into eternal dwellings okay the second lesson here if we are faithful in our use of money then we can be trusted with greater things than money that's one of the thoughts here there is nothing secular before the throne of god we often think of you know christian and secular no there's nothing secular before the throne of god we cannot divorce the spiritual from the material because they're linked lesson three we are to be single-minded not simple-minded single-minded okay you can't have two masters any more than you can walk in two directions at once okay okay let's move on to verse 14 the pharisees also who were covetous heard all these things and they derided him now the word derided here teresa is to deride by turning up the nose to sneer at or scoff at is the flavor there and he said unto them ye are they which justify yourselves before men but god knoweth your hearts for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of god wow though the pharisees justified themselves we see that all through this in the previous chapter god who judges the inward man and he will be the ultimate judge the law and the prophet now there's a very key verse here by the way it just comes up in verse 16 luke 16 16. it all the same issue comes up in matthew 11. the law and the prophets were until john what does that mean that means john the baptist is what closes the old testament not the book of malachi the law and the prophets were until john since that time the kingdom of god is preached and every man presseth into it so that's what we call the dispensation of the law and the prophets that dispensation was up until john the baptist because he closes that by being the forerunner for the messiah the messiah has now come different deal different deal the pharisees misunderstood the blessings of god's covenant they apparently assumed that a person's wealth was god's blessing in return for righteous conduct we all seem to make that mistake i know people have gone to a church and because they get cancer the the pastor or some of the leadership will assume they will they got cancer because they must be sin in their life boy does that go for big right can you imagine and then they're surprised if the people leave that church to go to a different church no that illness or poverty or whatever is not necessarily a penalty or what for unrighteous conduct and vice versa we need to understand that the pharisees made that mistake they completely neglected the fact that many righteous people in the old testament lack material things while many unrighteous people had plenty they're not linked together be careful don't argue like job's friends did that job's problems were because there was some hidden sin luke 16 illustrates that the pharisees justified themselves but they were judged by god luke 16 17 it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail now a tittle is the little decorative hook on some of the hebrew letters this is elaborated on in matthew chapter 5 verse 17 and 18 great verse jesus said in matthew 5 17 think not that i come to destroy the torah or the prophets i come not to destroy but to fulfill for verily i say unto you now when jesus wanted to emphasize something he says i say unto you such and such when he wanted to emphasize it especially put her underline that he'd say verily i say to you verily i said to you till heaven and earth pass one yacht or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled that's quite a verse for lots of reasons primary one being there is a call by lord jesus for us to take the bible literally one yard or one tittle a yacht is the smallest of the 22 hebrew letters you and i would mistake it for an apostrophe or a little blemish on the paper it's a hebrew member of the hebrew alphabet but it's just like an apostrophe now a tittle is a little decorative hook not one yard or one he's saying not only is each letter relevant each part of a letter is relevant okay that's that's his way of getting us to realize he means what he says and says what he means take that take the bible literally that doesn't mean you ignore figures of speech there are rhetorical devices in the scripture there are metaphors allegories uh types and i could go on and on you know how many different types of rhetorical devices are in the bible how many different kinds of rhetorical devices are in the bib in the bible over two hundred cataloging indexed with examples in our materials if you want to get into that okay verse 18 whosoever putteth away his wife and marrieth another committed adultery and whoever married her that is put away from her husband committed adultery boy is this a popular verse pharisees justify themselves but we're not living according to the law one example this is used here just as an example is divorce divorce and remarriage jesus defined as adultery he gave one exception this by the way if you want to get into this you've got to get into matthew 5 matthew 19 and 1st corinthians 7. and there are exceptions to this but that's the basic concept that there's two issues here the divorce is part of it is only part of the issue after the divorce the remarriage is an issue it's a complicated issue it's an example of justifying themselves in the eyes of men but not being justified before god there's a distinction between accommodating the practices of that day which they did but they were wrong and following god's instruction okay now this for most of us is the big part of this chapter the rich man and lazarus there was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day purple and feynman that was as luxurious as you can apparently and there was a certain beggar named lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores the fact that he was laid at the gate implies he was a he wasn't just poor he was a lazarus is the greek form of the hebrew name eliezer which means god is my help okay lazarus was sick possibly crippled because he was late at the rich man's gate by the way as we go forward in this topic i want you to realize there's there's only one person that's returned from the grave and he has the floor jesus is presenting us information that we cannot get anywhere else okay this is one of the few reliable passages there's a lot of people writing books on after death experiences and so forth be careful be careful they either they either agree with what he's told us or they're worthless or worse that may be dangerous notice that this is not a parable it's an actually incident these are real historical characters with names there's two reasons that we emphasize his name to demonstrate it really happened it wasn't merely a rhetorical device or a little story the rich man likely did not know the man's name but it's interesting jesus knew his name jesus knew lazarus's name there's a lesson right there when you encounter a poor person someone destitute you don't know the name jesus does he's watching verse 21 and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table that's his predicament moreover the dogs came and licked his sores and it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into abraham's bosom the rich man also died and was buried so we got this diversion here death is not the end it's the beginning of a whole new existence in another world and that's part of what this teaches us lazarus was righteous not because he was poor but because he depended on god the rich man was not condemned because he was rich but because he didn't use his resources properly abraham was among the wealthiest in the world of his day yet he was not in torment in hades he is an idiom for the good place we're going to discover that hades or sheol has two compartments a good place and a bad place an idiom for the good place is abraham's bosom okay in hell or in hades he lift up his eyes being in towards the rich man being in torment and seeth abraham afar off and lazarus in his bosom now wait a minute here there's a great deal of information here the rich man is conscious he's aware and he somehow knows what's going on over there because he sees abraham over there wherever that is and lazarus is there with them in his arms now the word hell in your english bible is prob is a translation usually of the greek word hades okay abraham's bosom becomes an idiom for a place of paradise for old testament believers at the time of death we're going to see that on explained here and subsequently okay theologians believe abraham's bosom was evacuated after the cross and the resurrection i'll show you that in a minute christ was the first fruits of them that slept first corinthians 15 makes that reference for the christian death means to be present with the lord okay now in the old testament sense lazarus was in abraham's bosom i'll show you what happened later but for the christian when you die he told the thief that was saved this day you'll be with me in paradise okay for the unbeliever death means to be separated from god's presence and we have no grasp of what that means it apparently results in the tormented state physical death is the separation of the soul in the body the body goes in the grave the soul goes to sheol in the hebrew hades and the greek separation of the soul and the body is physical death the second death is separation of soul and spirit and our soul separated from god is something we can't conceive of and that's what portrayed here in the torment tremendously the word hell is an english word derived from a saxon which means to cover hence it's the covered or invisible place that's what the word was intended to convey the un the the dark hidden place in scripture there are four words that are rendered hell in your english the word sheol in the hebrew the word hades in the greek the word gehenna in the greek and the word tartarus we're going to look at each one of these so you understand the differences because they're not the same thing well two of them are the same thing the hebrew word is show it occurs in the old testament 65 times it's derived from a root word meaning to ask or demand so the word implies insatiableness never satisfied and just as described as hell is never the shoulder is never full it's rendered grave 31 times but that's actually a mistranslation because sheol and grave are not the same thing the grave is a physical place you can own a grave you can have graves in the plural you never have sheol in the plural there's only one graves are a physical thing that you can identify you can own you can have title to it's a it's just the repository of the body not the person okay so sometimes show by connotativeness is connotatively translated grave but technically there's a difference show is rendered hell 31 times in the authorized version the place of disembodied spirits for your purpose and mind we can regard show and hades as synonyms the inhabitants of shoal are the congregation of the dead in proverbs 21 it's the abode of the souls of the wicked dead in number 16 and a lot of other places it's also the location of the good in the old testament psalm 16 30 49 so on show is described as the deep in job the dark in job and with boris and job so those terms are all identified with show in in the book of job the dead go down to it so whether it's idiomatic or geo or topological it's down there's the idea concept it's not to be confused with gabora the term for grave sometimes show is translated grave connotatively but that's technically not correct a grave is physical and receives bodies sheryl does not shulk it is you ca a grave can be used in the plural no one can have and one can't have title to a grave you can own a grave it's right there physically wherever you know joel is singular never used in the plural those are very conceptually different let's get back to the greek term hades it's the word from that which is out of sight to denote the place of the dead it's translated hell 11 times in the new testament the septuagint uses hades to translate the hebrew word show so we take hebrew and translate to greek shoal becomes hades that's used that way on 61 occasions in greek hades is associated with orcis infernal regions a dark and dismal place in the very depths of the earth the common receptacle of disembodied spirits that's the greek concept behind hades and greek conception had two subterranean divisions elysium paradise and tartarus which is really really dark okay you think hades is dark tartaruses well we'll get to that hades refers to the abode of the unsaved dead prior to the great white throne judgment that's from revelation 20. hades is a prison with gates and bars and locks according to matthew 16 revelation 1 it's downward also and the righteous and the wicked are sept there but separated okay some view the blessed dead as in the part of hades called paradise and we'll see that luke 23. the other idiom we ran into this chapter was abraham's bosom there's a good place in the 80s in other words however the rich man lifted up his eyes in verse 23 the bosom abraham was far off so not only is he a distance but there's also a hierarchy difference he's lower it's higher kind of thing abraham's boson is obviously in heaven and will you encounter that in matthew chapter 8. most of the early church fathers viewed paradise as part of heaven not hades well that's because after the cross and we'll get to that the two compartment view that i'm presenting here is an accommodation to the greek conception okay now we get into another word that's different than the two words we've spoken so far the word gehenna that originally was the valley of the sons of hinnom is what the word originally meant the valley was a deep narrow ravine to the south of jerusalem separating mount zion from the so-called hill of evil council the hill of evil council is a very interesting hill by the way because the when the united nations set up their headquarters they set it up on this hill the hill they have to pick was the hill of evil council so so every knowledgeable jew gets amused by that and they also call them the you know the jeeps always have you and on this item they call them the unsolders anyway this this ravine here the idealistic jews offered their children in sacrifice to molech in second chronicles 28 33 jeremiah talks about this the uh the jews that were idolatrous gave their children to this bronze idol heated till it was like red hot that was child sacrifice so this ravine is notorious for being the site of those practices but it also became the city dump that's where they dumped trash and there was always something smoldering burning there so it became an idiom okay that became a rhetorical device to speak of the lake that burns with fire and brimstone and so a place of everlasting fire and burning is the concept in the in the uh the term ghana in this sense it is used by our lord 11 times the lake which burns with fire and brimstone it's not hell in the sense of hades it's where hades will later be dumped into that okay the late so the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone is the what the word gehenna means so hades and canaan are different hades is temporary because in revelation 20 verse 14 it's going to be cast into gehenna gehenna is forever it's outside time it has no terminus it also has no hope we can't imagine that hades is in the earth and apparently it's suggested that's geocentric because there's a bottomless pit the only place you have a pit with no bottom is at the center now gehenna is sometimes confused with the term the outer darkness and 9 out of 10 commentators fall into that trap it turns out the term outer darkness in the greek is a very strange construction it's not the way you would say outer darkness in greek it's a relative it's a darkness that's outside it's really the idiom is always used with respect to a banquet there are people that are not allowed in the banquet that doesn't mean they're unsaved it's it's a widely misunderstood term very complicated to get into i don't want to get into all that here just be aware of the fact that most people have a misconception about what the outer darkness is and the the distinction i'm making is supported by nine of the top greek sources it's not a fringe view it's a minority view because most people haven't taught about it but it turns out there are ecological discoveries that support the idea the outer darkness is not kahana although many people associate with guyana hades is associated with the bottomless pit the abuso the abyss and we'll come to that and so there's another term that shows up only once in the new testament peter uses the term tartarus it's a greek term it's it's a word translated hell with only one use the new testament ii peter 2 4. what does it really represent in the greek mind the deepest abyss of hades in homer's iliad it's described that that tartarus is as far below hades as the earth is below heaven that's again a greek mind what the word tartarus is intended to suggest so i don't know where it is but i don't want to go there okay okay it is the specific place of incarceration of the angels that sinned in genesis 6 we have the angels of sin and tartarus is specifically the place that those angels that sinned are incarcerated that's what peter's talking about in second peter 2 4. there's another term that comes up the word is abuso it's a related term to the bottomless pit or the abyss in the greek it's abusos this is what the beast of revelation comes out of that's where he comes out of the bottomless pit that's where satan will be bound for a thousand years during the millennium is in the abuso it's also a place from which the demon locusts emerge in revelation 9. so it comes up a couple of places but it's pretty pretty dark stuff so let's talk about the underworld a little bit we have hades and hades is in two parts there's a place of torment that's where the rich man found himself and there's abraham's bosom hades embraces both concepts i'll get it's not finished i'll come back to this there's apparently a impassable gulf between the two of them we're told in luke 16 the rich man once allows us to take it dip his finger in water and cool his tongue no there's an impact he there's no there's no traveling between these two it's an impassable gulf now we also encounter the bottomless pit it doesn't say this but it we can't we sort of presume that that bottomless pit may be somehow part of the impassable gulf you can almost visualize it that way but that's just our conception from what we have from this chapter as much said about each one of these things but this is the way they apparently relate to one another and the bottomless pit may also be idiomatically equivalent to tartarus it doesn't say that but it's not a um it's not a far stretch on that one some insights you want to realize the man in hades was fully conscious there's no soul sleep here he was aware of what was going on he had memory he could speak he was in pain and he expect he expressed desires his eternal destiny was irrevocably fixed and he knew it come to grips with that one there wasn't any second chance here he knew it was over he had it he knew that what he was experiencing was fair and just there was no attempt to reconsider he also knew something else he knew what his brothers needed to do to avoid his own fate he knew that his brothers had to repent to avoid getting into his predicament and he pleads that somebody tell them there's a tremendous amount of awareness that he's burdened with now by the way he's not yet in hell in the sense of gehenna he's in hades so here he is in verse 24 and he cried said father abraham have mercy on me and send lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in the water and cool my tongue for i am tormented in this flame that's a description of someone who's there not a rhetorical device this is jesus presenting an actual incident i am tormented in this flame no soul sleep here he's conscious and very much aware you know when dante did his divine comedy he pictures hades with a sign over the top abandon all hope abandon ye who enter here boy that gets it across no hope we can't imagine being without hope so he begs to have lazarus cool his tongue the punishment of lost sinners is not remedial it does not improve them hades and guyana are not hospitals for the sick they are prisons for the condemned we need to grasp that but abram said son remember that thou in thy lifetime receives thy good things and likewise lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented so abraham explains his predicament and besides all this he explains between us and you there is a great gulf fixed so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence that's what the word impassable means the word chasma is a gaping opening a chasma gulf and it's like a yawn or whatever some conjecture that the ibuso is involved in this geocentric topology the only place topologically one can have a bottomless pit would be at the center of the earth because in that direction all directions are up there's no down you can't get lower than the center but that's just a topological conjecture now we also understand for a number of reasons that this was the hades had two compartments but when jesus was crucified he went down there to declare his victory and he took them with him to heaven that's the that's not a conjecture that's suggested by first peter 3 19. so then the rich man continues then he said i pray thee therefore father that thou would ascend him to my father's house for i have five brethren that he may testify unto them lest they also come into this place of torment so it's interesting that he in hades has concern for the lost but can't do anything about it it's interesting too that okay lazarus can't cross this impossible gulf but let lazarus go to the ones that are still alive and explain it to them testify to them that they unless they unless they come and have his predicament and abram said to him if they hear not moses and the prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead now it's very colorful very interesting that there was a guy named lazarus that did was raised from the dead and what was the response to the pharisees they had to kill him many people don't realize that they're not the same lazarus don't misunderstand me but i think it's interesting that the names are the same see one did rise his name was also lazarus in john 11 there's that whole story we'll take a look at it at the end of the time if we have time the response of the chief priest was to plot to kill him you find that john 11 at the end of it and by in chapter 12 the next following chapter verse 10 they had they couldn't have this guy walking around that everybody knew had come back from the dead that was you know that was damn damaging to their image they had to put them away how calloused the conscience must be so rather than repent they just plotted against them i mean amazing faith that is based solely on miracles is not a saving faith it's another point faith that is based solely on miracles is not a saving faith we need to understand that we need to understand that because there's going to be miracles done by the antichrist and people are going to be impressed with those miracles if they don't understand the attribution okay jesus spoke more of hell than of heaven did you know that they both are real heaven and hell are real we need to understand that the more we know about phys the physical world the more we understand that it is a small simulation in a much larger context those are the conclusion of the physicists the particle physicists and so forth and this reality that the heaven and hell are real that should preempt all of our other priorities there's no priority in your life that is more compelling than the reality of these two domains have and hell heaven we don't understand but we don't bother us because it's gonna be great when we get there we don't worry about that the idea of hell is something even christians try to avoid thinking about but it's a reality and you need to understand that reality because that's what you're in the business of helping your friends avoid c.s lewis says he says the safest road to hell is the gradual one the gentle slope soft underfoot without sudden turnings without milestones without signposts like just a comfortable drift is the road to hell now many people ask you how can a loving god even permit such a place as hell to exist let alone send people there how many of you heard someone raised that issue before yeah all your hands are up of course sure in asking that question they reveal that they do not understand two things they don't understand the love of god and they don't understand the wickedness of sin that's the difference the the difficulty of embracing here god's love is a holy love not a shallow sentiment god's love is a holy love not a shallow sentiment sin is rebellion against a holy and loving god that's what it is god's mercy is unobligated and sovereign we need to understand that i will have mercy on whom i have mercy declares romans 9 15 i will have mercy on whom i will have mercy that is the sovereign god of the universe speaking the incarnate god who was vicariously suffered more for man's sin than any man will personally surely has the right to determine the method and extent of his own self-emulating compassion he paid the price he calls the shots he went there and he suffered more for our sin than any man well personally he suffered more for your sins than you ever could dream of doing so he has the right to write the he has the right the right to write the rules god does not send people to hell by the way they send themselves there by refusing to heed his call and believe on his son that's all through the scripture expressed many different ways nobody will be in hell for their sin they will be in hell for rejecting the provision god has made for the sin and he paid a handsome price for that to escape danger one must believe in that danger salvation presupposes a prior damnation we need to understand that denial prevents penitence for sin and this prevents pardon denying it gets in the way of getting it done with because it's been paid for but it's got to be acknowledged and owned and repetitive no error consequently is more fatal than that of universalism which blots out the attribute of retributive justice transmutes sin into misfortune instead of guilt turns all suffering into chastisement converts the redemptive work of christ into mere moral influence wow do we see that everywhere make salvation a debt due to man instead of unmerited moon from god no consequence is more fatal than your sin because no doctrine throws its solemn shadows upon even the most careless human life the fall and eternal ruin of the human spirit is the most dreadful event imaginable we brought up this guy lazarus a different lazarus in john john 11 but we should take a quick look at it so as long as he brought him up here john said well i'm glad for your sakes that i was not there jesus explained that he wasn't there when he died i'm glad for your sixth that i was not there to the intent that you may believe nevertheless let us go unto him jesus said unto her thy brother shall rise again and martha said unto him i know that he'll rise again at the resurrection at the last day he said here i am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die believeth thou this do you she said unto him yay lord i believe that thou art the christ the son of god which should come into the world when jesus therefore saw her weeping and the jews also weeping which came with her he groaned in the spirit was troubled and he said wherever you laid him they said unto him lord come and see and then we have what some people regard the shortest verse in the bible john 11 35 jesus swept there actually is a verse that's shorter in the greek but i won't go there it's not important jesus said take e away the stone you've got to be kidding martha said there's the sister of him that was dead said unto him lord by this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four days jesus said that her said i not unto thee that if thou would just believe thou should have see the glory of god then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid and jesus lifted up his eyes and said father i thank thee that thou hast heard me and i knew that thou hearst me always but because of the people would stand by i said it that they may believe that thou hast sent me and when he was had thus spoken he cried with a loud voice lazarus come forth you know why he said lazarus come forth so they all wouldn't come out right [Laughter] that he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes can you picture struggling coming out of the tomb wrapped in a whatever and his face was bound with a napkin he said unto him loose him and let him go and red path has a wonderful thing he does on this that lazarus was in three states he was dead then he was defeated he was alive but he's bound by his grave clothes he's raised but trammelled by his grave clothes and finally when he released him he was dangerous they had to kill him he couldn't have emery around dead defeated adventures and i i love his development of this because he points out that's where we are most of us were dead until we're saved when we're saved we're alive but most of us are still wrapped up in our grave clothes we've got to shed the baggage of the old life to be free to be dangerous his enemies had to kill him see the real you is eternal whether you realize it or not if you've seen our briefing package on on beyond time and space you know that einstein's discovery that alder the greatest discovery of 20th century science was that time is a physical property we live in four dimensions the physical dimensions time is physical it varies with mass acceleration and gravity and see my frustration sitting up here is i can't see you i can see the temporary residence you're occupying the real you soul spirit whatever you want to call it is software not hardware it's like this computer i can know every detail various wire and part in this computer and i could tell you nothing about its behavior because it all put together but one thing it's a resonance for the software to understand the behavior i have to understand the architecture of the software see the real you isn't a hardware software called soul spirit whatever that's fine software has no mass i can send software through the airwaves it's information all god needs to resurrect you is some information he can put you back together because it's a dma thing right it's information the real you is without mass which means the real you is eternal whether you're saved or not oh really yeah the challenge is where are you going to spend eternity are you going to be spending it in the presence of god your creator or will you be spending your eternity hopelessly separated from god something you can't imagine real use eternal well the next session i want you to study luke chapter 17 for the next time and we'll continue on our excursion we have just a 17-18 left before we get to the big stuff 19 and following is the big climax in jerusalem the offer of the kingdom its rejection and the crucifixion and the resurrection and all that let's stand for closing word of prayer

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Length: 64min 54sec (3894 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020