In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In Luke chapter fifteen, Jesus tells three different parables all of which have the same main point. First, there’s the parable of the lost sheep. Then there’s the parable of the lost coin. And finally, there’s the parable of the prodigal son. Even though each one of these parables have different things to teach us on their own, the overarching thing that all of them teach us about is the nature of repentance. As Jesus says at the end of the parable of the lost sheep, “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over nighty-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” And, again, as He says in reference to the lost coin, “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

So, given the fact that these parables from Jesus are supposed to be about repentance, what I’d like to do in today’s sermon is review this important topic from the Bible and go over some of the things that we learn about it from this text.

We’ll start by simply defining what repentance actually is. As we see very clearly from the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and especially the prodigal son, the essence of repentance has to do with turning away from your sin in order to be forgiven. In fact, that’s what the word “repent” literally means. It means “to turn.” This is exactly what we see happening with the tax collectors and sinners at the beginning of our reading. These men and women were drawing near to Jesus in order to get His forgiveness. They were turning away from their sinful lives in order to receive a new life from Christ. They were repenting.

Now sometimes when people hear about Jesus welcoming sinners and eating with them, like He did in this passage, they get the wrong impression about repentance. Just like the Pharisees and the scribes from our text, they assume that this means that Jesus must have been accepting or approving of these people’s sinful behavior. But that’s not what our Lord was doing when He ate and drank with the tax collectors and sinners. Jesus wasn’t giving a “thumbs up” to their sin. He wasn’t turning a blind eye to their past transgressions, or God-forbid, encouraging them to keep on doing it. Rather, Jesus was forgiving them for it. When the people came to Him with genuine sorrow in their hearts over the things that they had done and a desire to amend their ways, that is, when they were repentant, Jesus opened His heart to them and offered them cleansing. 

All throughout the Scriptures our Lord preached both repentance and forgiveness. He didn’t just tell people that God wasn’t mad at them anymore, so go have a party and do whatever you want, He told them to stop what they were doing and receive from Him the gift of everlasting life instead. In Mark chapter one, it says that after John the Baptist was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.” Or think about what Jesus did that one time with the woman who was caught in adultery. Our Lord did not just defend her from her accusers and spare her life. After that, He also told her to “go and sin no more.” When Jesus came into the house of Zacchaeus, a notorious sinner, and a chief tax collector, He praised the man specifically when he confessed his sins and offered to give back all that he had stolen. Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house… For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Clearly, Jesus never encouraged people to keep on living sinful lives on purpose or to use His forgiveness as an excuse to do things that the Bible calls wrong. Those churches in our day who use passages like this one from Luke chapter fifteen to argue that we Christians should be accepting of sinful things like homosexuality or other perverted lifestyles that God’s Word condemns, because Jesus ate and drank with tax collectors and sinners, are completely abusing the text. They are twisting the Scriptures and leaving out the fact that this entire account from the Bible is all about repentance. It is literally about people turning away from their sinful lives, not about people embracing them.

Jesus describes the sheep and the coin as being lost. He says at the end of the parable of the prodigal son that the boy that ran away from home was dead. That’s the nature of sin. That’s what the Bible says about living contrary to God’s Word. Sin is actually bad. Sin really does separate us from God and deserve His temporal and eternal punishment. Sin truly does kills us. 

So, again, when the Bible says that Jesus was eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners, it doesn’t mean that He was accepting or approving of their sins. He wasn’t telling them that they were fine the way that they were and that they should keep on stealing, committing adultery, or fornicating because none of that actually matters. On the contrary, after showing people just how bad these things really are, and bringing them to their knees in fearful, but godly repentance, our Lord was lifting them up again and assuring them that He came for the precise reason of saving people just like them. Jesus was preaching repentance. He was teaching people to turn away from their sin in order to be forgiven because that’s what repentance is all about. That’s what repentance means.

Now, besides showing us what repentance means, and how it has to do with turning away from your sin in order to be forgiven, these parables of Jesus also teach us several others things about repentance that are equally important to know.

In the first place, they remind us that repentance is not just something for some people, but that it is something for all people. In fact, this was main reason why Jesus taught these three parables to begin with. His primary audience was not the tax collectors and sinners who were already listening to Him and repenting of their sin, but rather it was the Pharisees and the scribes who were watching all of it happen and complaining about it. Instead of being happy that other people were repenting and going into the kingdom of God, they were mad about it because they did not think that they needed repentance themselves. Like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son, who did not realize that in refusing to go into his father’s house at the end of the story, he was doing the exact same thing that his younger brother did at the beginning, the Pharisees and scribes were doing the same. They were refusing God’s grace. They were rejecting His Word. Even though God offered them forgiveness and salvation too, just like He did for the others, since they did not believe that they were sinners in need of it, they refused to have it. They would not accept it.

But what does the Bible teach us about sin? Does it just teach us that other people are sinners, or does it teach us that we are sinners too? Does it only teach us to look at the spec in our neighbor’s eye, or does it tell us to consider the plank in our own eye as well? Listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah from Isaiah chapter fifty-three. He writes, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” And then there are the words of Saint Peter from 1 Peter chapter one. He says, “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

When we hear about the lost sheep being found, the lost coin being recovered, and the prodigal son coming back, we aren’t just supposed to think about other people. We are supposed to think about ourselves. God wants us to realize that we too are sinners in desperate need of His grace, and that if we will not repent of our own sin, and trust in Christ for forgiveness, then we will be lost forever as well. Remember what Jesus says about repentance in Luke chapter thirteen. When some of the people came to him asking about that horrible incident where Pontus Pilate brutally murdered a group of Galileans, Jesus said, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” After that Jesus said the same thing about the people of Siloam who had the tower fall on them and crush them. He said, “Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Even though all sins have the power to dam us, and there is no sin that does not need forgiveness, that does not mean that all sins are the same. The worst sin of all is the sin of not believing that you are a sinner to begin with. Which is worse, to know that you are lost in the woods and not be able to find your way out, or to be lost in the woods without realizing it, and keep on walking around in circles forever and ever? At least a person who knows that they are lost on their own will be open to another person’s help. And the same thing is true when it comes to our relationship with God. In order for us to receive His grace, we first need to come to the realization that we need it.

Again, the point here is that repentance is not just for other people. Repentance is not even just a one-time thing that happens only once in the past and after that never happens again in the future. On the contrary, we Christians are called to ongoing repentance. From the moment of our Baptism, where Jesus washes away our sin, and gives us a new identity as God’s forgiven children, we are encouraged to live a life of continuous reflection where we repeatedly examine ourselves, turn away from our failures, try and suppress our sin, and look to Christ for mercy and help. Just as the Small Catechism tells us, “What does Baptizing with such water indicate? It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” 

What should you do with the lust that is in your flesh, the hatred that you feel in your bones, and the greed and the covetousness that keeps rising up in your sinful heart? You don’t give in to it and say that its good. You turn away from it and admit that its bad. You run to Christ for His forgiveness, and you use that forgiveness to keep on fighting your sin and quitting it whenever it rears its ugly head. You repent and believe the Gospel. You do that for as many days as God gives you to live.

And that leads me to the last and the most important thing that these parables teach us about repentance. They teach us that ultimately repentance is the work of God Himself. Who gets the credit when a person turns away from their sin and looks to Jesus for forgiveness? Who should we thank when someone comes back to church after being gone for a long time? Who do we praise when someone living in open sin quits it and admits that what they were doing was wrong? Do we praise ourselves? Do we pat each other on the back? No, we give thanks to God. We give all the credit to Jesus.

It was the shepherd that went out and found the lost sheep. It was the woman who turned over the whole house looking for the lost coin. It was the father who ran out to meet the son, and wouldn’t even let him finish his pre-planned speech. Whenever a person comes to repentance, that is, whenever they turn away from their sin and look to Jesus for forgiveness, whether or not they realize it in the moment, that was the work of Jesus too. As we read in Acts chapter eleven, “When they heard these things, they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, ‘Then to the gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”’ Just like faith, repentance is a gift from God. It is not something that we bring about ourselves, it is something that God brings about in us. God works repentance in our hearts when through the preaching of His law and gospel He shows us our sins, makes us sorry for them, and then leads us to Christ who promises to forgiven them.

The reason why it is so important for us to realize that repentance is ultimately the work of God is two-fold. First, because it keeps us from boasting in ourselves and trusting in our own works for salvation. And secondly, because it keeps us trusting in God alone for the salvation others too. We all have people in our lives that have turned their backs on the Faith, who we desperately want to be saved. But we don’t want them to be saved as much as God does. And only God can actually do it. Only His Word has the power break their sinful hearts of stone, and give them a new heart in its place. Our loved ones will not be any better off if we withhold the Scriptures from them, and they will not be any better off if we support and approve of their sin. All that we can do is bear witness to the hope that is within us. All that we can do is pray, speak the truth in love, and entrust our cause to Jesus, knowing that Jesus never stops seeking the lost. If He could find us, then surely, He can find them too. So, we leave everything to Jesus, and we rely completely on His mercy.

The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son are supposed to teach us about repentance. Repentance means turning away from your sin and trusting in Christ for forgiveness.  God’s Word not only teaches us that everyone needs repentance, including Christians, but that God will not withhold His forgiveness from anyone who is sorry for his or her sin regardless of what it was. He will receive them back safe and sound no matter how far they have wandered from His fold. Nothing makes God happier when someone comes to repentance. Nothing gives Him more joy than giving out what Jesus laid down His life to purchase. As Jesus tells us in our text, “There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” May God fill us with the same joy of the angels. May He make us glad to see others forgiven, knowing that all of our sins have been forgiven too. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Even from the earliest times, Christians have always set aside certain days of the year to remember important events and important people from the Bible. Today, in the historic Church calendar, it’s the commemoration of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. That’s why we have the color red on the altar instead of green. Red is the color of blood, and both of these two men were martyred for the Gospel, meaning, both of them shed their blood confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord.

In today’ sermon, I’d like to do two things in commemoration of these two saints. First, I simply want to take some time to explain why it’s okay to observe saint days in the Church at all, and how to do this correctly. And then, I want to talk some more about what we learn from these two saints specifically. 

Lots of times we Lutherans can be hesitant to talk about the saints because we are very aware of how easily this topic can be abused. This is definitely one of those instances where you might hear the phrase, “Pastor, that’s too Catholic.” But claiming that because Roman Catholics do something we automatically shouldn’t do that thing as Lutherans is not actually a good metric for quality decision making. There are a lot of things that Roman Catholics do that we do as Lutherans too. Catholics baptize babies. Are we going to stop baptizing babies just because the Catholics do it? Catholics read the Bible in church. Are we going to stop reading the Bible on Sunday’s just to prove how we’re different from the Catholics? Catholics wear vestments, they light candles, they sing hymns, and they have Communion. Clearly, we are not going to stop doing any of those things just because the Catholics do them too. That would be ridiculous.

And the same thing applies to remembering saints from the Bible. It’s not that we shouldn’t do this at all, but rather, that we should do it in the right kind of way. We should do it in accordance with what the Scriptures teach us and apart from all of the abuses that we see in Rome.

Obviously, it’s wrong to pray to the saints and look to them for help in times of need. God’s Word teaches us that we should pray to Him alone and no one else. As we read in 1 Timothy chapter 2, “There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Just so you know, though, whenever you talk to a Roman Catholic about why praying to the saints is wrong, you should expect them to ask you a question. More than likely, they’re going to ask you whether or not you ask other people to pray for you sometimes. And then they are going to say that praying to the saints is the same thing as asking other people to remember you in their prayers. It’s sound legit, but the problem is that that is not what they’re actually doing. Here is a prayer that is sometimes prayed in Catholic churches, “O Mary, conceived without stain, pray for us who fly to thee. Refuge of sinners, Mother of those who are in their agony, leave us not in the hour of our death, but obtain for us perfect sorrow, sincere contrition, [and] remission of our sins… so that we may be able to stand with safety before the throne of the just but merciful Judge, our God and our Redeemer.”

That prayer speaks for itself. Not only does it teach people to look to Mary in times of need and not to Jesus, but it gives the impression that through her intercession we can receive the forgiveness of our sins. It’s hard to think of something that is more blasphemous than that. Asking your grandma to pray for you when you’re sick isn’t the same thing as pleading with her for the forgiveness of your sins. Jesus doesn’t tell us to go to someone else for that. He tells us to come directly to Him. As He says in Matthew chapter 11, “Come to Me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

Besides praying to the saints and looking to them for help in times of need, it's also wrong to talk about the saints in such a way that we hardly ever talk about Jesus. Even if we don’t pray to them, or look to them for forgiveness, if all we ever do talk about is how great they are and how we should be more like them, it’s going to give the impression that we’re saved by copying them instead of through trusting in Jesus. But what does Jesus say? He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus gives us access to heaven, not the saints. Jesus died for our sins, not the saints. Jesus has the power to answer our prayers, and help us in our time of need, not the saints. Jesus is our Savior, not the saints.

And yet, just because we shouldn’t talk too much of the saints, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t talk about them at all. Of course, we should talk about the saints! The Bible talks about the saints. The Bible literally records for us the lives of these faithful people so that we can learn from them. It has never been the position of the Lutheran Church that we don’t talk about the saints at all or remember them in worship services. What is the name of our church? It’s St John Lutheran church. Listen to what it says in the Augsburg Confession, which is one of our confessional documents as Lutherans, something that was so important to our ancestors that they literally carved its initials in stone on the walls of this very building. The Augsburg Confession says, “Our churches teach that the history of saints may be set before us so that we may follow the example of their faith and good works, according to our calling. For example, the emperor may follow the example of David in making war to drive away the Turk from his country. For both are kings. But the Scriptures do not teach that we are to call on the saints or to ask the saints for help. Scripture sets before us the one Christ as the Mediator, Atoning Sacrifice, High Priest, and Intercessor. He is to be prayed to. He has promised that He will hear our prayer. This is the worship that He approves above all other worship, that He be called upon in all afflictions.”

We don’t worship the saints. But we do learn how to worship from the saints. We learn how we should present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God like they did. And that’s why it’s okay to observe saint days in the Church. Again, not to praise them, but to learn how to better praise Jesus.

Just think about those two saints that we are commemorating this morning in church, Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Look at how their lives bear witness to the mercy of God in Christ. Neither of them had a stellar background before they became Apostles. Peter was a lowly fisherman, and Paul made it his life’s mission to murder Christians. Have you ever spent some time around a sailor? It’s probably not your first choice for who you’d want to be your pastor. And you certainly would be taken back if your pastor had a notorious reputation for physically hurting people just because they believed in Jesus. But that’s who God chose. God chose what was weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what was low and despised by others to demonstrate His great mercy and love.

Peter and Paul had their faults. One of them denied the Lord three times after swearing with a vow to be faithful to Him, and the other one held people’s coats and cheered for them while they stoned a guy to death for being a Christian. And yet, God forgave them both. God brought them to repentance over their sins and then He gave them the gift of faith to trust in Jesus for forgiveness.

God not only brought Peter and Paul from spiritual death to spiritual life, but after that, He even used their life for His service. It was from Saint Peter’s mouth that God chose to reveal that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, as we heard about in our Gospel reading. It was the same mouth that once denied the Lord three times, that the Lord used to preach a sermon that converted 3000 souls in a single day on Pentecost. At one point, Peter was so weak in his faith that he was afraid to even be associated with Jesus at all, but then Jesus filled him with the Holy Spirit and caused him to write down Epistles that have strengthened the faith of countless Christians during their most intense persecution and suffering.

And then there’s the apostle Paul. It’s hard to image a bigger turn around then his. Paul went from trying to kill Christians, to trying to make everyone he met a Christian like him. When Paul stood before King Agrippa, facing the possible death penalty, he didn’t even try to use that time to get himself released from prison. Instead, he used it to try and get Agrippa to convert. And when Agrippa said to him, “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian,” Paul responded, “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am.” Few people have ever suffered what Paul suffered for the sake of Christ. He was stoned. He was beaten. He was flogged. And he was put in prison. But that didn’t stop him from proclaiming to good new of salvation in Jesus. Paul went to the end of the known world preaching the Gospel, establishing churches, and writing more books of the Bible than anyone else.

The point of all of this is that if God could forgive Peter and Paul, and use them for His service, He can forgive you and use you too. If God can change Paul, who once called himself the chief of sinners, then He can change you too. If God can absolve Peter, who once pretended that he didn’t even know Christ, then God can absolve you too. No, we shouldn’t use the examples of these men to excuse our sin, or to make light of it, but we absolutely can use their example to comfort ourselves when we sin and our sorry for it with the promise that Jesus will forgive us. 

Have you ever denied the Lord? Have you ever pretended that you didn’t know what the Bible said about something because you were too embarrassed to say it? Have you ever been ashamed of what the Scriptures teach because there were other people around who didn’t believe them, and would have made fun of you for confessing them? Have you ever secretly wished that something from the Bible wouldn’t come up in conversation so you didn’t have to talk about it? Don’t lie. You know you have. Maybe not out loud, but I bet you have in your heart. And God sees the heart too. God sees the heart, but God can also cleanse the heart. God can give us a new heart, and forgive us for the sins that soil our hearts. He did it for Peter and Paul, and He promises to do it for you too.

When we hear about what these two men did in spite of their sins, it should embolden us to do the same. Just like when a little boy hears about Babe Ruth calling his shot and hitting a home, and then he wants to go outside and play baseball, when we hear about Saint Peter and Saint Paul, it should make us zealous to serve the Lord like they did.

I’m not saying that we should all become missionaries or act like we have the ability to write a book of the Bible, but I am saying that we can all be faithful in our calling, and do our own part in service to God’s Kingdom. It may not look as spectacular or feel as fulfilling as what Peter and Paul did, but that doesn’t mean that it is any less valuable in the eyes of God. Remember what the hymn says, “If you cannot speak like angels, if you cannot preach like Paul, you can tell the love of Jesus, you can say He died for all.” It's a little bit cheesy, but that’s a good line. The Scriptures teach us that the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who is brought to repentance. There is literally a party in heaven every time a dad gets out the Bible and does a devotion with his wife and kids. All the vault of heaven resounds when a Christian invites their neighbor to church, or takes the time to try and explain the Scriptures to them. God sees it when His children suffer for the sake of His Name, even if it was just that other people laughed at them for believing what the Bible says. God sees it, and He smiles upon it for the sake of His Son.

Yes, it's wrong to pray to the saints. It’s wrong to look to them for help and for forgiveness. But it’s not wrong to learn from their example. Peter and Paul were sinners. But they were also great men that God in His grace used to do great things. They died for the faith. They showed us that some things are worth dying for. Jesus is worth dying for. The confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, is worth losing your life for. Maybe you won’t be martyred for the faith. Most people aren’t. But that doesn’t mean that you won’t suffer for the faith. That doesn’t mean that you won’t lose things because of what you believe. Everyone loses something. But nothing compares with what you gain as a Christian. You gain heaven. You get a seat at the table with Peter and Paul. You, the lowly sinner that you are, get a spot with these great men. Why? Because Jesus took your spot. Because just like He died for them, Jesus died for you too so that your sins would be forgiven and so that you would have a place in heaven also. So, be like Peter and Paul, trust in Jesus for forgiveness and use your life to serve Him and not yourself. In Jesus’ Name. Amen

In the Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There are a lot of important questions that we have to grapple with in this life, but the most important one of all is what happens after this life is over? What happens to us when we die? Almost everybody has something to say to this question regardless of their religious affiliation. Some people will tell you that you can’t be sure about what happens to you when you die, so you might as well not try and answer the question at all. Others will say that nothing happens when you die and that this life is all that there is. In some places its taught that when you die, depending on how good of a person you were in this life, you can return to the world reincarnated as a different a living thing entirely. Another dominant perspective, which is popular even among many Christians, is that when you die you go to a place of cleansing where your soul is purged from the effects of your sin until you’re holy enough to enter God’s presence. And many people believe that everyone simply goes to better place when they die no matter what. That’s what people say.

But today in our Gospel reading from Luke chapter 16, we get to hear about what Jesus says. We get to hear about how God answers this question. In the account of the rich man and Lazarus, the Author of Life Himself, the one who died and rose again, and holds in His hands the keys to death and hades, tells us what happens when we die. So, in today’s sermon, let us consider together a few things that we learn.

The first thing that we learn from this passage about what happens when we die is that after someone does there are only two possible places where we can go. As Jesus says in our reading, “The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.” Here Jesus reminds us that the only two places where you can go after you die is heaven or hell. At the moment of your death, when your soul is separated from your body, which is what death is, immediately your soul is present in either one of two places. You either go to Abraham’s side, or you go to a place called “Hades.”

Abraham’s side is simply another way from the Bible of talking about heaven. As Jesus also tells us in Matthew chapter 8, “Many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” The reason why the Bible uses the language of sharing a meal to describe heaven is because that captures the essence of what heaven is. Heaven is eternal fellowship with God and all of His saints. Heaven is unending communion with the Lord and those who belong to Him. Remember what Saint Paul says about heaven in Philippians chapter 1. He writes, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” And then there is the way that Saint John describes heaven in the book of Revelation. He tells us that, “they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in his temple; and He who sits on the throne will shelter them with His presence.” While there may be different things that happen in heaven, the essence of heaven is simply being with God forever. 

On the other hand, then, that also shows us what the essence of hell is. Whereas heaven is all about being with God forever, hell is about being separated from God forever. Since God is the source of everything that is good, being apart from Him can only mean something bad. That’s why Jesus doesn’t just refer to hell just as Hades, which literally means “the realm of the dead,” but He also says that the rich man who went there was in torment. He was in agony, because apart from God and His love, that is all that there is. There is only suffering. As we read in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might.” If we don’t have God with us to protect us and provide for us, then there is no protection or provision at all. Since God is love, as we heard in our Epistle lesson today, being apart from Him means experiencing no love at all. Again, that is the essence of hell. It means being separated from God and His love forever.

One of the biggest errors of our time is the idea that everyone goes to a better place when they die no matter what. Sometimes this is referred to in theological terms as “Universalism.” Even though that’s a big word, it isn’t that complicated of a topic. More than likely you’ve seen “universalism” first hand if you’ve ever been to a funeral for someone who wasn’t a Christian. Often times at those funerals you will hear people console one another by saying that “so and so” must be in a better place now. The assumption is that either there is no such thing as hell at all, or that if there is, it’s only reserved for the extremely wicked. And yet, while that may give a certain kind of comfort to those who have experienced loss, it is also a delusion that has not basis in the Word of God. In fact, the Bible teaches us not only that hell is real, but sadly, that is where the vast majority of people actually end up. As Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 7, “For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Either way, the point remains that when you die, you either go to heaven or hell, and both of those places are very real.

The next thing that we learn from the account of the rich man and Lazarus is that after we die our eternal state is fixed. When the rich man cried out for Lazarus to come and dip his finger in water to cool his tongue, Abraham told him that it was impossible. He said, “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 here.” According to the Bible, there are no second chances after we die. As soon as our soul leaves our body and makes its way to Abraham’s side or to the torments of Hades, that’s it. You can’t leave heaven, and you can’t get out of hell. As we also read very clearly in the book of Hebrews, “After death comes judgment.” It’s not as if there will be more time to get right with God and repent of your sins and trust in Jesus if you are not already doing that when your last hour comes. The idea of purgatory or reincarnation, both of which give the impression that such things are possible, completely ignore the witness of the Scriptures, and give false confidence to people who instead need to be warned.  Rather than teaching people to take their sins more seriously, these false doctrines end up teaching people to take them less. They trick people into thinking that they can keep on doing something that they know is wrong because later on there will always be more time to get forgiveness. But that is simply not true.

Every time that the Bible describes the afterlife it does so by using absolute terms. Remember what Bible tells us that Jesus will say to the sheep and the goats on Judgment Day. He says, “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Both heaven and hell are described as eternal realities. In hell, their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. In heaven, the day never turns to night and the righteous never stop shining. After we die, our eternal state is fixed. It can’t be undone.

And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the account of the rich man and Lazarus teaches us that where we end up in the afterlife is entirely dependent upon how we received God’s Word in this life. When the rich man died and went to hell, he wanted someone to warn his brothers so that they wouldn’t end up in the same place that he was. But when Abraham told him that his brothers already had Moses and the prophets, as in, they already had the Bible, the rich man said that wasn’t good enough. Instead, he wanted someone to go from the dead and tell them directly. To which Abraham responded, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”

The reason why where we end up in the afterlife is entirely dependent on how we receive God’s Word in this life is because the Bible alone is God’s tool to give us saving faith in Jesus. The Bible is the instrument that the Holy Spirit uses to teach us about the work of Christ. It is how we learn about the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world so that through trusting in His sacrifice we can be saved.

God’s Word could not be clearer that we are saved through faith alone. We are not saved by our own good works. We are not saved simply because we avoided certain things and never did anything extremely bad. Whether or not we think that what we’ve done is or is not bad does not mean that God sees it in the same way. God sees all of our sins at once. He sees every single moment of our life in an instant. All of our wicked thoughts and every single one of our wicked deeds are laid bare before His eyes. Even our deepest and darkest secrets that nobody else knows about but us, and that we would be horrified if anyone else found out about, are not hidden from the Lord. And, according to Him, a single sin by itself disqualifies us from being saved on our own. One solitary transgression makes us unfit for His righteous and holy presence. As we read in the book of James, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.”

Ultimately, then, it is not the mere act of committing a sin that sends people to hell, but rejecting the forgiveness of sins that comes from Jesus. Unbelief is what dams, and faith is what saves. That is not because faith in Jesus is a virtue by itself like love or bravery, but because faith in Jesus means receiving the virtues of Jesus. It means trusting in His righteousness and not your own, which God says, counts as yours when you do. Remember what we heard in our Old Testament lesson today. It said, “Abraham believed in the Lord, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

Many people today want to go to heaven, but don’t want to listen to the Bible. They want to be in a better place when they die, but they don’t want to be in the place where God promises to be with them now. They don’t want to go to Church and hear the Word of God. But you can’t have God without His Word. And you can’t have heaven in the afterlife, if you won’t come to heavenly feast that has already begun in this life.  We don’t go to Church simply so that we can be saved by the mere act of going. We go to Church to receive God’s Word and Sacraments. We go to Church to get the forgiveness of our sins. We go to Church so that our faith can be fed, and so that through the witness of Moses and the prophets, together with the words of Apostles and the Evangelists, we can keep on learning to repent of our sins and put our trust in Jesus who died for them.

In the account of the rich man and Lazarus Jesus teaches us about exactly what happens when we die. When we die, we either go to heaven or hell. At the moment of our death, our eternal state is fixed, and there is no changing it after it happens. And the only way to avoid hell and come to the joys of heaven is by listening to the invitation of salvation proclaimed to us through God’s Word and believing it. It is by receiving the forgiveness that comes from Jesus. When we listen to the Bible, we are preparing ourselves for the moment of our death. When we come to Church to take Communion, we are already getting to experience the communion with God that never ends. May the Lord Jesus open our hearts to hear His Word so that someday when our hearts stop beating the angels will come and carry us to Abraham’s side. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.