Option
#1: "Things To Know Before You Must Go"
Luke 16:19-31
Rev. Wayne Dobratz, B.A., M.Div.
I. Your
resources are God’s tools to help the needy--vv19-21; Ps 49:12;
Lk12:16-21 (Augustine: "You have barns, the pantries of the widow and
fatherless children, the storehouses of the poor"); Matt.
25:32-40, et al
II. There are
two unchanging destinations in the afterlife--vv24-27; Matt 25:41ff; Mark
9:43-49; John 3:36; Rev 20:14-15
III. Your trip
planning must take place before you depart--vv27-31; Lk 10:38-42; Acts
17:11
Barnes Notes on the New Testament: From this impressive
and instructive parable we may learn:
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That the souls of people do
not die with their bodies.
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That the soul is
"conscious" after death; that it does not
"sleep," as some have supposed, until the morning of the
resurrection.
-
That the righteous are taken
to a place of happiness immediately at death, and the wicked
consigned at once to misery.
-
God gives us sufficient
warning to prepare for death. He has sent his Word, his servants,
his Son; he warns us by his Spirit and his providence; by the
entreaties of our friends and by the death of sinners; he offers us
heaven, and he threatens hell. If all this will not move sinners,
what WOULD do it? There is NOTHING that would.
-
God will give us nothing
farther to warn us. No dead man will come to life to tell us of what
he has seen. If he DID we would not believe him. Religion appeals to
man not by ghosts and frightful apparitions. It appeals to their
reason, their conscience, their hopes, their fears. It sets life and
death soberly before people, and if they "will not" choose
life, they must die. If you will not hear the Son of God and the
warnings of the Scriptures, there is nothing which you WILL or CAN
hear. You will NEVER be persuaded, and will NEVER escape the place
of torment.
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Children's Message on Luke
16:27-31
Visual aid: A folder or
envelope such as would hold a plane ticket; a Bible.
Jesus loved to tell stories. We
call them parables because they compare something we don’t know to
something we do know. What I have here is an airplane ticket. They
won’t let you on the plane without it. You can argue with them all you
want; you won’t get on that plane without a ticket.
According to Jesus’ story for
today, the Word of God is like that. It tells us about something that
everyone wants to know about. Everyone wants to know where we go after
we die. The Bible tells us that we get on to the "airplane"
that flies to eternal life through faith in Jesus. While we are here,
this faith makes us think like Jesus. You know that Jesus helped many
people: he healed the sick and he even brought dead people back to life.
The rich man in Jesus’ story
lived only for himself. He didn’t care about the poor, sick man right
outside his door. There are people that you and I can help, too,
and you don’t have to be a rich man to do it. Just think the way Jesus
thought and you’ll get the idea.
When the selfish rich man ended up
in hell, he begged that someone be sent to warn his brothers so that
they didn’t come to hell also. But Father Abraham said they already
had the "ticket" for the "plane flight" to heaven: They
have Moses and the prophets (the word of God); let them listen to them. Besides,
they weren’t listening to God’s Word anyway, and they wouldn’t
listen even if someone came back from the dead.
(Hold up Bible) This is your
"ticket" to eternal life. It tells you of Jesus, your Savior.
It tells you how to live your life as you follow him. DON’T LEAVE
THIS LIFE WITHOUT IT!
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Option
#2: "A Heavenly Poor Boy"
Amos 6:1-7
Rev. Kelly Bedard, B.A., M.Div.
The Point: complacency
in material wealth and luxury brings God's judgment, but trust in God's
provision and grace brings eternal security
The Problem: we seek
personal comfort and security by amassing wealth and luxury for ourselves
The Promise: Christ
is our substitute: "...though he was rich, yet for [our]
sake...became poor, so that [we] through his poverty might become
rich" (2 Cor 8:9)
(The above
is from a homiletical help by David Peter)
1. God comes to afflict the
comfortable and to comfort the afflicted.
2. The root of the false
security which [Amos] exposes is pride--pride of person, pride of
association, and pride of position. They rejoice in being notable, in
belonging to the first of the nations, and in being those to whom
the rest come deferentially for the settlement of cases. (The
New Bible Commentary: Revised)
3. By their own lawlessness
they were hastening the enthronement (seat) of violence, the
day when "lawlessness will reign," "the reign of
terror." So it must have been in the final years of the kingdom of
Israel when, after Jeroboam, only one king passed the throne on to his son
and the rest ended their reigns by assassination." (Ibid)
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