Luke 16:19-31 THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS

 Recently Pastor Scott started a series called In ——-> Between 

It reminded me of an event 10 years ago.

My father was in assisted living and every Friday I took him dinner after work. It was usually 2 soft tacos from Taco Bell without lettuce and a 44 oz Diet Coke “Thirst buster” from Circle K. If you lived in AZ you knew what a thirst buster was! 😇

He asked me shortly before he passed: he says, Im afraid, will I have to spend 3 days in hell like Jesus did? 

I opened my bible app and read him the Rich man and Poor man. 

The Rich Man and Lazarus 

”There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who 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 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, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. “Then 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.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ” Luke‬ ‭16‬:‭19‬-‭31‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

And I explained to him that Jesus went there to free the saints who were on the other side of the divide (great gulf fixed) because after Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross, their sins were removed and they could now goto heaven! 

I read him several other verses about being in the presence of the Lord. 

And for his assurance,  I asked if he accepted Jesus as His Lord and Savior? Which he replied yes. My father believed He died and rose again for our sins.

I was there when he took his last breath on earth and his first breath in heaven. 

I was also there 8 years earlier for my mother.

Blessings 

Pastor Scott’s In ——> Between Part 1

https://youtu.be/Ey72FVmX0us