"Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, enjoying himself in splendor every day. And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed from the scraps which fell from the rich man's table; not only that, the dogs also were coming and licking his sores" (Luke 16:19-21).

In the 1600s there was a famous philosopher and mathematician named Pascal. Blaise Pascal was a child prodigy and a genius. His discoveries in math and physics defined those fields for generations.

He is most remembered today for his philosophical statement called Pascal's Wager.

Here's a simplified breakdown of the argument:
Pascal argues that we all have to choose whether to believe in God or not.

 

He says there's no way to definitively prove or disprove God's existence, so it comes down to choice.

You have to make a choice, he argues—you don't get to sit this out—because there is this little thing you are going to face with 100 percent probability and that little thing is death.

Now, your wager has four possible outcomes:
1. If God exists and you believe: You gain infinite happiness (eternal life in Heaven).
2. If God exists and you do not believe: You suffer infinite loss (eternal damnation).
3. If God does not exist and you believe: You lose nothing except maybe for only some passing pleasures in this life.
4. If God does not exist and you do not believe: You gain some passing pleasures from living without religious constraints.

Therefore...

Given these potential outcomes, Pascal concludes that it is more rational to live as if God exists and to believe. That's because potential infinite gain outweighs any actual finite loss.

If you're going to be strictly philosophical, I think Pascal's Wager is a great way of thinking through how you're going to live your life. Too bad the rich man in the parable made the wrong bet.

In my last message, I talked about Lazarus who went to heaven. In today's message, I want to share with you the biblical teaching on the rich man who went to a place of torments, called hell, and what Jesus reveals about that very difficult topic.

The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus
So Jesus launches his parable with a very rich man and a very poor man, a beggar. The rich man is very successful and the poor man, by earthly standards, is very unsuccessful.

The first thing I want to point out is that in all of the parables of Jesus, this is the one and only time a person is given a name. Lazarus. The poor man is named Lazarus. Lazarus is a name meaning God is My Helper. Jesus gave him this name to indicate his faith.

That's important because of what happens next:
"So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades [Hell], he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom" (Luke 16:22-23).

I said last time that Abraham's Bosom was a common term for heaven back in those days.

I said that Jesus gave the beggar a name that indicates his faith, because that's his main point here.

The person who knew he needed God's help went to heaven.

The person who knew he didn't need God's help went to hell.

Because Jesus wants us to look beyond the richness of the rich man and the poorness of the poor man. I know this because the context tells us so.

If you back up just 4 verses from this parable, you get this:
"And He said to them, 'You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts'" (Luke 16:15).

Jesus is talking to very religious Pharisees. They saw money as a sign of God's favor, and so they patted themselves on the back for how rich they were. They justified themselves, as Jesus put it. They considered themselves right with God for all the wrong reasons.

But the Bible is clear that no one, anywhere, ever, in any time or any place can ever be justified before God by anything except for the kind of faith which admits its own moral bankruptcy and calls out to God for help.

And this is exactly the picture of a bankrupt beggar whose very name makes him a living plea for help from God.

When we explain the gospel, we use the ABCs.

You have to ADMIT that you are a moral Lazarus, a poor beggar with nothing to offer God. Not your good works. Not your rituals. Not your morality. Not your religion. Nothing. Not your performance. Not your sacrifice. Not your effort in any way shape or form. You are broke and in desperate need of a Savior.

Because the fastest road to hell is to never admit your need of a Savior.

The great evangelist of a century ago... DL Moody, said, "You have to get people lost before you can get them saved."

If a person is drowning and a lifeguard comes to save them, but the drowning person pushes them away, what's going to happen?That person is going to drown.

That's the rich man.