Luke 16:19-31 The Rich Man and Lazarus

Today’s message is seriously one of the most important places of scripture that we can study. It is a place in scripture where we see what happens to people after they die. We have two different accounts but primarily we will be taking a hard look at a man who ended up in hell. This parable on the surface looks to be addressing money which it is, but really it is addressing how do I get to heaven or how do I end up in hell.

I believe we could spend weeks on this particular parable and barely scratch the surface of its depth. But I hope that God’s word speaks to your hearts today about His Truth. What we are going to look at today should make a serious impact on how we deal and look at scripture.

Please open your Bibles to Luke 16:19-31. We are going to be taking a look at the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. One interesting note on this parable is that it is the only parable Jesus uses a real persons name. I believe there is a reason God uses the name of Lazarus but we could speculate many things about that simple fact. But instead of exploring that particular question we are going to dig into what God is trying to tell us through this parable.

Let’s read Luke 16:19-31

19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. [1] The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— 28 for I have five brothers [2]—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”


Before we explore this passage we need to take one step back and look at who is Jesus’ audience. Who is He telling this parable too because it will help us with the full context of this passage. It will help us with understanding what God is telling us 2000 years later and it confirms that God’s word it timeless.

Jesus is addressing a group of Pharisees. Jesus is about to give them a serious jolt to their understanding of heaven and hell and how does one go to one place or the other? The Pharisees are men who believe they are going to heaven. They believe in God, they are very religious, they are very devout, they are very active in their form of religion. They believe if anyone is going to heaven it will be them. They are full of self righteousness.

However, we know the Pharisees heart, in luke 18 we see the difference between the Pharisee and the tax collector. One who is on his knees beating on his chest that he is a sinner who needs God and the Pharisee who trusts in his own righteousness to be saved. Jesus tells us the tax collector went to his house justified and the Pharisee was not. These are religious men who are bound for Hell and they don’t even realize it. Jesus is giving them a serious warning through this parable to them and also to us.

Jesus is directly addressing them but the message is the same for us today.

In such a short paragraph Jesus tells us about the life, death and afterlife of two men. We are going to take a look at those 3 aspects of these two men. Their life, their death and their after life.


First, Let’s take a look at their two lives.

Verse 19 Tells us about the rich man. He was so rich that he was clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted sumptuously daily. This man had no physical needs. If you could afford purple clothing in Jesus’s day then you were a multi-millionaire by todays standard. The purple die was extracted from a mollusk called a murex. This man had it all by the worlds standards.

Now what do you think the Pharisees were thinking about this man? As Jesus is telling them about this man they are thinking wow this guy is really blessed by God. He must be a very Godly man to have all these riches. God’s hand must be upon him.

Then we move to Lazarus in verse 20. Lazarus is described as a poor man, covered with sores, desired to eat the scrapes that fell off of the rich man’s table. And just to add emphasis to his situation, the dogs licked his sores. We have a man who from the world standards is in complete destitute. His basic needs of having shelter and food are not being met. He must be a cripple since he can’t even shoo away the dogs licking his wounds. What do you think the Pharisees were thinking when Jesus told them about this man? I can visualize it in my head. I can visualize the disgust on their faces. I can see them shaking their heads and thinking wow this guy is a bad dude. God is obviously cursing him. He is a very very bad man and he obviously deserves what is happening to him. Think about how the thought about the tax collector “thank God I am not like him” how much more did they think about this man.

They would treat Lazarus just as the rich man did by completely ignoring him, showing him no love, no compassion for this suffering man because they would believe he was condemned by God and being punished for his or his fathers sins. Just as they ignored the beaten up Samaritan

Lets next take a look at their deaths.

In verse 22 Lazarus dies and was carried to heaven while the rich man died and was buried. There was no one there to bury Lazarus because the angels came and picked him up to heaven. But if there was a body he would have been thrown into the dump where all cursed humanity ends up.

Now the rich man is buried he has a proper funeral. But what is really surprising is that he died. It doesn’t give an account why he died but I think it is another reminder that we do not no the day or time when we will be called to judgement. But I do know that his riches did not or could not buy him another day here on earth.

For Jesus’ audience the parable is starting to take a unbelievable twist and this is where our lesson is going to focus on and that is the 3rd point about how do each of these men end up in the after life. How did one end up in heaven and one end up in hell. And it is shocking to his audience.

Verse 22 reverses everything that the Pharisees would have thought about these two individuals. Lazarus is carried by the angels and is place next to Abraham’s side and we see the rich man is in Hades and in torment. We have a huge reversal of roles in an instant.

One moment everything is flipped upside down. The poor man suffers and the rich man is satisfied; then you have the rich man who suffers and the poor man is satisfied. You have a poor man who has nothing and a rich man who has everything, then you have a poor man who has everything and a rich man who has nothing. You have a rich man who has no desires and then you have a rich man who will never have his desires fulfilled and a poor man who never had his desires filled and a poor man who now has all his desires filled. I could go on and on how their roles have been reversed.

I can only imagine what would be going through the Pharisees heads. I am sure complete and utter unbelief. How could this be that the beggar who was poor and condemned ended up in heaven and the rich blessed man ended up in hell? We are going to find out! Do you see how this parallels with what Pastor John taught this weekend. How much better was it for Lazarus to be in a really bad place and a very difficult situation but be with God than it is to be in a place that looks really good like the Rich Man but be without God. How the tables are turned in an instance.

As the story continues it is going to reveal the Rich Man’s heart and how he ended up in hell. Verses 23 - 26 tell a whole lot about the Rich Man.

23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’

Wow when you read this the audacity of this man it is incredible. He has found himself in hell in complete torment. We see that he does not say how in the world did I get here. He does not tell Abraham that there has been some sort of mistake. He doesn’t say I don’t belong here. He knows he deserves to be there.

He doesn’t even repent and beg for forgiveness because he knows he deserves his punishment but what does he beg for? He can only beg for one thing, a little relief from the torment he is in. He asks Father Abraham to send Lazarus over and let him drip a drop of water on his tongue. Even in hell he wants Lazarus to serve him even though he would not give Lazarus the scrapes off of his table.

This portion of the parable really tells us all we need to know about Hell and what it is going to be like. It is continual torment, there will never be any kind of relief from its pain and suffering. People in hell will know that they are were they deserve to be and here is the most amazing thing to me. They still do not repent and their sinful hearts will never be transformed.

Verse 26 also reveals something to us. No matter what there is a chasm between heaven and hell that can never be crossed. There is also no mention of a waiting place called purgatory where people will be able to earn their way to heaven after some time period.

Hebrews 9:27 tells us And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

We also see that this man is fully aware of where he is at, he fully understands his punishment and he knows he will be there for all eternity and this is why he pleads for his brothers in the next few versus.

Verse 27 - 30 he pleads with Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers to Repent. Aha!!!! here is the real issue of this man and he fully understands why he is in hell. Because he did not REPENT. He wants to warn his brothers that they need to repent!! Without repentance there is no forgiveness of sins. If there is no forgiveness of sin then we are destined to an eternity of hell and torment. And this torment and suffering is not temporary but forever.

Jesus says:

Luke 5:32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

Luke 13:3 and 13:5 Jesus repeats saying: No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

This is the main point Jesus was communicating to the Pharisees and also to us. You are not going to get to heaven according to your own self righteousness. You are only going to get to heaven when you bow your kneed to God and and tell Him I am sorry Lord... Save me... a wretched man and become the Lord and Savior of my life. I can’t earn my way into heaven. It is only by the promise of the Messiah Jesus Christ and His shed blood that can save us.

I can only be saved when my heart is represented by the life of Lazarus. I am poor, I am destitute, I am sick and I need a Savior. When we come to God with that type repentant heart we will be saved.

But if I come to God like the Rich Man’s life represents, I need nothing, I have everything, I am fine, I am a good person. You will enter the wide gate and find yourself in hell.

This is Jesus’ warning. But there is more.

The Rich Man continues in his complete depravity in Verse 30 where he rebukes Abraham and tells him no. If someone from the dead were to go back to them and warn them to repent then they will believe. What is this man saying? He is telling Abraham it is God’s fault for not warning him. If someone would rise from the dead and warn him he would have repented. His blaming God for not repenting.

And we end today with Abraham’s answer in verse 31. If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets then not even if someone raises from the dead will they will be convinced.

Oh man do you hear what Jesus is telling him? he is telling them you don’t need signs and wonders to believe. You don’t need to see miracles to believe. You don’t even need to see someone rise from the dead to believe. But what do you need? What is the thing that you need the very most? Scripture!!!

When Jesus refers to the Moses and the Prophets he is referring to the old testament scriptures. Do you know people before Jesus were saved the exact same way people today are saved. Abraham, Moses, Noah and the rest were saved the exact same way as we are saved. It is repenting and believing in the word of God. It is only by hearing or reading the word of God that saves someone. There are no programs, there are no human tricks, there are no signs and wonders that can be done to save anyone unless the word of God is preached. Think about the real Lazarus and how people walked away from that miracle. Not only did they walk away but what did they plot to do? To kill both Jesus and Lazarus because they Pharisees were afraid to lose their position of control, to lose their money and t lose their power.


This is why we cling to our Bibles and we hold everything unto it. We test all things according this book. God has spoken on how we are to avoid hell, He has told us what we need to avoid an eternity of punishment. It is right here folks. It is repenting and believing in God’s Holy Word. And what does scripture tell us that Jesus Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life and nobody comes to the Father accept through Him. It doesn’t matter if you were born 2000 years ago or 20 years ago you are saved through repentance and belief in God’s promises of a Messiah to save you who was and is Jesus Christ of Nazareth.