GROUP FELLOWSHIP

AUTUMN 2001

SEPT 11/13

STUDIES IN HEBREWS

WHAT SORT OF PEOPLE OUGHT WE TO BE?

(1) LUKE 16. 19-31: A PEOPLE WHO REMEMBER ETERNITY

CONTEXT: of Luke 16.19-31

In Luke 15 and 16 Jesus is directing his teaching especially at Pharisees. In Luke 15, He tells His three great parables (about the lost sheep, coin and son) attacking their ideas about God and ‘sinners’, showing God’s great desire to save the lost. In Luke 16, Jesus tells two more parables with the Pharisees in mind In the first (16.1-15), the parable of the ‘good bad man’, he shocks the Pharisees morality! In the second, (our parable) (16.19-31) He shakes the Pharisees’ materialism!

‘The Pharisees loved money’ (16.14). They believed money and piety went together. They weren’t aware of its dangers and how hard it is ‘to serve both God and mammon’ (16.13). The Pharisees (unlike the Sadducees) believed in resurrection, judgement, heaven and hell. In our parable, what would have shocked them is not what happened after death, but to whom it happened!

CONTENT: of Luke 16.19-31

Some questions to help us to understand and apply Jesus’ teaching to our lives:-

1. Talk about what impact the parable makes on you : - what strikes you? - what shocks you? What you understand? - what you don’t understand? What you like? - what you don’t!

(But remember, this is the teaching of our Lord Jesus.)

• What do you learn about the two contrasting men in the parable?
• What details are so telling about their earthly circumstances?
• Can we get any idea about their moral characters?
• What sort of man was the Rich Man? And how would you describe his life-style?
• How do you think people of that day and age would have assessed the relative ‘value’ of the Rich Man and Lazarus?
• What about our day and age?? What sort of things affect our evaluation of people today?
• God isn’t mentioned in the parable, but some graphic details in the parable indicate to us quite clearly how God thought about the two men. What are they? (Compare the two men’s deaths – and destinations!)
• What do you think are the important things this parable tells us about life after death?

(Use the following questions to elicit these truths if you wish:

• Is death the end of conscious existence?
• Is life after death affected by life on earth? How?
• Is there a possibility of ‘change in destiny’ after death?
• Can the dead influence the living?
• How is ‘Heaven’ described? And how ‘Hades’? )
• What do you think verses 27-31 have to say about Jesus’ thoughts on how men and women’s hearts and lives are lastingly changed?

• ARE WE A PEOPLE WHO REMEMBER ETERNITY?? How does the reality of eternity affect how you live each day?

SOME NOTES:

Luke 16: 19 "purple" (his outer garments) and fine linen (his underclothes). Both very costly.

• "at his gate" - a ‘grand’ word = ‘portico’. He had an impressive house!
• "in hell". Properly, "in Hades" , which is the Bible’s name for the place where all the dead go on death. (‘Gehenna’ is the word Jesus uses for ‘Hell’ as a place of eternal punishment.)

‘Abraham’s bosom’ (AV) or ‘at Abraham’s side’ (NIV) : In Jewish writings, Abraham is depicted as receiving the penitent and godly into Paradise. ‘In Abraham’s bosom’ is a Jewish way of saying: ‘Next to Abraham; in closest proximity and fellowship with Abraham’. (Compare John 1.13; 13.23: same expression)

16.26 ‘Lazarus’. This is the only parable in which a character is named! This makes the name of the beggar very significant. (All names were significant in Jesus’ day; but this one becomes especially so.) ‘Lazarus’ is the equivalent of the Hebrew name ‘Eleazer’ and means ‘God is my help’. It expresses the beggar’s faith and dependence on God.