A Personal Guided TOUR OF THE NETHERWORLD
Part 2
What is the destination for those be from a God who is personified by love
and who is full of compassion? Always said he’s meek and lowly what would that kind of
God do with people like that?
To answer that.
Go to Luke 12.
We’re going to look at two different passages in Luke 12.
I want to show you how Jesus taught. How he comes up with this Reckoning in spite of his loving
compassion.
Jesus teaches a lesson in a parable in Luke 12 starting in verse 16
16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
He says in verse 16 then he spoke a parable.
Jesus taught many parables.
They’re all throughout the the gospels.
In each one he teaches them in a unique way that you know that they’re a parable.
He’s Casting parabole means to cast truth alongside of life.
So he would talk about a sower in the seed.
He’d talk about a fisherman.
In each one of these he would give these beautiful pictures so here he’s doing another one.
He taught a parable to them saying in verse 16 the
ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.
He thought within himself saying what shall I do since I have no room to
store my crops. So he said I’ll do this! I will pull down my Barns and build greater ones.
There I’ll store all my crops and my goods. I will say to my soul. Soul you have many Goods
laid up for many years. Take your ease. Eat, drink
and be merry verse 20.
17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where
to bestow my fruits?
18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there
will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take
thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then
whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
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But God said to him
20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then
whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
Yeah that is a classic Parable and and the
lesson of the parable is. That we have to give an account to God.
You’re not supposed to say well let’s see barns are bad. You know you’re not supposed to go through and
differentiate what parts are your.
Has a big lesson. It’s a beautiful. It’s a parable and it has a clear
meaning.
Now I want you to turn to chapter 16
because I want to show you something that may change the whole way you look at death, dying in the grave and the
afterlife.
Because in chapter 16 we have an expert witness we have the only one
who’s ever gone to the grave and returned to report on it.
His name is Jesus and no one has more to say and has greater reliability on this subject and
all that has to do with the afterlife than Jesus.
In fact in Revelation 1 he says I’m the only one that has the key
keys to that place. He’s The Keeper of the keys. So he is the expert and here’s
what he has revealed.
Starting in chapter 16 in verse 19 Jesus leads us into the inside
of the Nether World. The other side.
The afterlife and it’s called in the Bible by various names. Hades. The Grave.
The Pit sometimes it’s called hell.
Although it’s differentiated the true Lake of Fire.
Hell in Revelation 20 is is called gehenna. That clearly is told to
us in the Bible it has no occupants yet there’s.
Nobody in Hell for all the epithets and people sending people there.
Nobody’s got there yet. It’s not until after the Judgment of Revelation 20
Every dead person from Cain to the final person at the end of the world
will end up in this place. We’re going to look in Luke 16 because here Jesus
tells not a parable. Because Parables never call People by name.
They’re always generic. They’re always you know a certain servant or a certain master or a
certain king or certain people were walking down this or that.
Jesus tells a story about an individual. In fact two individuals. Two distinct people each
of whom awakens after death in a vastly different place.
So basically there are the persons in number one is a nameless lost rich man. One faceless
sick beggar named Lazarus. So we have a nameless rich man. Who commentators have always called
Dives-that’s the Latin word for Rich and we have this named but unknown poor
beggar.
The place that this story picks up is in the grave moments after death.
That’s what Jesus spends the time talking about. The portrait he gives us a for
foretaste of Heaven and Hell. Of bliss and horror. Of paradise and pain.
Of comfort and torment side by side.
Remember he’s no middle ground.
The details are Jesus Christ Our Lord giving a glimp of the Grave through the doorway of death.
Look at Luke Chaper 16:19
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
What’s so interesting is it says there was a certain rich man.
Now notice he doesn’t say I’m telling a parable.
That’s absent. He’s naming people. He names Lazarus.
He names Moses. He names Abraham. He talks about the prophets. This is a
whole different genre. This is not parabolic but it says there was a certain rich man who was clothed in
purple.
So he starts telling descriptions of this man wearing fine linen. He fared sumptuously every day.
There was a certain beggar named Lazarus. He was full of sores. He was laid at his gate.
Desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table.
Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
So the first thing to remember is Luke 16 starting in verse 19 down through ver 31 is not a Parable.
19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came
and licked his sores.
22 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;
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of
his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus
evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
26 And beside all this, 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.
27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:
28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one
rose from the dead.
It differs from every other one.
I believe personally Jesus is actually describing the grave.
What’s missing is Jesus did not say learn the parable the rich man like we read in Luke 12.
In almost every one of his other Parables he speaks in a different way.
He said there was a certain rich man that’s the truth about eternity that Jesus speaks of most frequently.
He lets us know that the Dead Awaken from the millisecond rest of death in a very real a very painful
and a very different place than they thought they were going to.
The first thing that they experience is the inescapable reality that they will now have to live
forever with the results of their choices.
Now that’s the thing about the righteous person and the lost person.
We both have to Forever live with the results of our choices on Earth.
That’s a staggering thing to think about, So every second over and over again the
reality of God’s word happens at death.
15,000 people a day you understand that’s a lot of people 55 to 58 million
people die a year in our world.
That’s 15,000 a day. Amazingly every second over and over again. The reality of God’s word happens to
people who face death alone. People face death most often in their sins.
People face death most often in horror and in pain. In the endless punishment that their
sins deserve. The inescapable reality most humans will face one moment after they
die is that they were not prepared for meeting God.
They were not prepared for the afterlife for the life that’s endless.
Christ Jesus here gives us a glimpse into the grave through the door of death.
He tells us truths that should govern Our Lives well.
The first one is that you notice it says that there’s a certain rich man and there is this Lazarus.
Verse 21 says they all had their desires but look at verse 22.
It was the beggar died and was carried away by the Angels into Abraham’s bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried. Just a typical story until right then.
That’s what happens all over the world 15,000 times today people died.
They’re carried somewhere. They’re in the process of being
buried. So many people around us will die. Many more could die this year.
When you get home you know turn on the TV. See you know how excited the people are getting in the world.
Everyone’s waking up and realizing that it could be that this flu that we’ve all
talked about that’s coming out of Mexico could get worse.
Those people most of them will die lost at death. Each unsaved person enters a place that is called by
the Bible the grave, Hades, the pit.
It’s a place that’s been feared since the earliest times of Life on this planet. It’s a dark place of endless
night.
It’s a dreary place of endless loss of Hope.
Most people think about this place more and more the older they get.
It’s interesting they do all kinds of things kind of keep it off you know to keep it off your mind.
They keep busy, keep active and keep the TV on. You know try and buy stuff all the time but if if you stop
all that. If you quiet it down. It just starts coming. It’s kind of like Shadows it comes in.
They think about death. Jesus was speaking of a literal event, which he as God has knowledge of.
Note: he doesn’t say the rich man was particularly bad. He isn’t a notorious sinner.
He’s just a successful well fed well-dressed cautious about strangers.
Mortal just like all of us.
I mean he doesn’t say anything bad about this guy. You know that’s what we need to think about.
Why does he go there? The only real problem with this rich man is that he had the same common sins
all people have but he died in them.
He died with those sins on him. Remember the the worst thing Jesus
said to one group was. He said to this group that came to hear him.
He says the power of God was present to save them but they rejected him.
He looked at him. He said you’re going to die in your sins. It’s a very horrible
thing. What he was saying is you’re going to Forever pay the price for your sins.
You are never going to have them removed by me because you’ve rejected me.
“Only one life to live and soon is past
Only what’s done for Christ will last!”
Hoping to make the time I have left count for the glory of God.
A Personal Guided TOUR OF THE NETHERWORLD Part 2