Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Who is Worthy? | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 16.19-31

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're learning how to follow Jesus by working our way through the Gospel of Luke. My guess is that you consider yourself a person who wants to help those in financial need, those who find themselves in poverty. Let me ask you this. What kind of person, what kind of poor person do you like to help? And what kind of poor person do you prefer not to help?

Starting point is 00:00:35 Maybe you're offended at that question, or you haven't quite thought of it that way before, and you might be saying to yourself, oh, I would be willing to help any poor person if I just knew that they had need. But are you sure? See, I think the kind of poor person we want to help and the kind of poor person we don't want to help says more about us than it says about them. And what it says about us is whether we really understand and grasp the gospel, God's grace, how God works in our life. But before we wrestle more with that issue, I want to go to Luke chapter 16 and look at a parable of Lazarus and the rich man. It starts in verse 19. Jesus introduces the people to us. He said, there was a rich man who was dressed in

Starting point is 00:01:24 purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. So here we have two people, one extremely rich. In fact, in Jesus' day, only a handful of people would have had this kind of wealth that lived in luxury every day. And we have a poor person, a man named Lazarus, in which people would be much more able to identify with,

Starting point is 00:01:56 although Lazarus himself was also painted with kind of extreme. language. He was laid in front of this rich man's gate, meaning that he couldn't get there on his own. He had sores or open wounds, seeming to indicate that he had some sort of health condition. And these dogs that came and licked his sores, well, don't think of pets. Think of wild, kind of scavenger-type dogs. Now, a lot of people who heard Jesus' story in the first century would have assumed that this rich man had been obedient. and therefore his wealth was a blessing due to his obedience, and the poor man would have been someone who was suffering because of his sin.

Starting point is 00:02:41 So I'm sure they were shocked when Jesus went on in this parable beginning in verse 22 to explain that when death came, it was Lazarus, the poor man who ended up at Abraham's side, and that the rich man ended up in Hades. In this story, the parable, the way Jesus tells it, the rich man is able to see Abraham. And he cries out to Abraham and says, would you send Lazarus over to me to give me a drink of water? For I am in misery here in Hades. And Abraham says, no, remember all the good things that you got in your life? And Lazarus, he received all the bad things.

Starting point is 00:03:26 Well, now he's in comfort. and you're in agony. See, Jesus reversed the conventional expectation about who ends up in heaven or in hell. But this doesn't mean that our salvation depends on our generosity or our material wealth. No, it is instead rooted in our hope and trust in the gospel. We see that because of the way the parable ends. See, this rich man says, Father Abraham, would you please send Lazarus to my brothers?

Starting point is 00:04:04 Let him warn them so that they will not end up in Hades where I am. And Abraham says, no, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them. And the rich man says, no, my brothers, they're not going to listen to him. But if someone from the dead goes, then they will repent. And Jesus said, well, if they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, they're not even going to be convinced if someone rises from the dead. So clearly this parable points forward to a time in which Jesus will rise from the dead, and yet many will still not be convinced. But for our purposes here, the key word is repent.

Starting point is 00:04:48 He says, look, even if someone rises from the dead, they won't repent. repentance is where we put our hope and faith in Christ we turn from sin and give our allegiance to king Jesus so the point here is that this man lived his life as his own king he had never repented and given his allegiance to king Jesus so the way he treated Lazarus all those years was a reflection of what was in his heart he was king of his own life his money was his money, he would do with it whatever he wanted, he would enjoy his luxuries in this world, but he did not think of Lazarus as someone he should help. And if he had repented, if he had put his trust in Jesus, if he had given his allegiance to Jesus as his king, it would have been reflected

Starting point is 00:05:44 in how he treated this poor man named Lazarus, who sat outside his gates. So one of the points of this parable is that there is a direct connection between our allegiance to King Jesus and how we treat people in our community who don't have the material resources that we do. And that takes us back to the question I opened with. And what kind of poor person do you want to help? And what kind of poor person are you less motivated to help? See, personally, I want to help the kind of poor person who is very responsible with their money, who never overspins, who never buys junk food or spends their money on a flat screen television. I want to help the poor person who works endless hours at maybe a low-paying job or who fills out job applications all day long seeking a better job. I don't want to help poor people

Starting point is 00:06:42 who use their money unwisely or who maybe spend their money on vices like smoking or drinking. I expect to help poor people who maybe walk everywhere to save their pennies and not use them on bus fare, people who don't make impulse purchases, who really value education. In other words, I think that we all have this desire to help worthy poor people, people who are in need for maybe you'd say good reasons. But you know, not many people fit that description, rich or poor. I sure don't. you ever overspent made an impulse purchase bought something you know you should have spent money on a vice something that really probably wasn't smart of course we all have i mean what we end up doing or at least what i'm confessing that i end up doing is saying that i like to help worthy poor people

Starting point is 00:07:41 you know why because those people don't really exist and if i hold my standards up high about what kind of poor person that I want to help, well, then it lets me off the hook, and I don't have to help the poor people who are real, the poor people who have real needs. I know this. I'm thankful that God didn't wait until I was worthy before he helped me. I'm glad that God didn't wait until I was worthy of his death. I'm glad that God generously sought me out when I was decidedly unworthy when I was a sinner, when I was characterized by foolishness. I'm glad God extends his grace to me with generosity and not frugality. I am glad that God is with me and loves me even when I make stupid choices,

Starting point is 00:08:40 choices that I should know better, choices that don't make any sense. One of the things that Jesus is telling us, in this parable of the rich man in Lazarus, is that if we give our allegiance to King Jesus, then we're going to want to help people who are in financial need. We're going to be generous. We're going to give graciously to people.

Starting point is 00:09:06 We are not going to make people earn or deserve our generosity because, of course, Jesus didn't make us earn or deserve his love. those who follow King Jesus love people Jesus loved. They love their neighbor. They love those who are hurting. They move toward need. That's the mark of a disciple.

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Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Who is Worthy? | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 16.19-31

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