He said to him, "If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should be raised from the dead." - Luke 16:31
I received Jesus as the Lord and Savior of my life in the fall of my senior year of high school. It wasn't for lack of information that I had not come to Christ earlier; the gospel message just fell on deaf ears. After coming to Jesus, I remember talking with one of my friends about the gospel hoping that he would come to faith, too. He said something like, "Andrew, of course I trust in Jesus. This is what I have been talking to you about." My friend had been sharing Jesus with me, but I couldn't even remember him talking about it! I didn't have ears to hear or eyes to see.
In Luke 16, Jesus gives a parable about a rich man and a poor man, Lazarus, who lay at the rich man's gate (Lk 16:19-21). Some even think this records an actual event. In the parable, both men die. Lazarus is received into Abraham's bosom, a place of bliss and comfort, but the rich man is sent to Hades, a place of torment and anguish (Lk 16:22-23). At one point, the once rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his five brothers, thinking that, surely, if his brothers saw someone risen from the dead they could avoid the torment of Hades (Lk 16:27-30). Abraham responded to him by saying: "If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should be raised from the dead." - Luke 16:31. In other words, it is our rebellious hearts that turn us away from what God is trying to tell us, not a lack of information. In our rebellion, we are blind to the gospel unless God lifts the veil (see 2 Cor 4:1-6).
This Sunday we will look at the necessity and historicity of the resurrection. As we look at the testimony of the stone rolled away, the empty tomb, the empty grave clothes and the eye-witness testimony of people who saw the risen Christ, we will see that belief in the resurrection of Jesus is reasonable. I can remember learning some of these things as a young Christian and thinking: "How can anyone not believe this!" The sad truth is, however, no matter how reasonable or necessary the resurrection is shown to be, we will dismiss what God has done unless God intervenes and speaks to our hearts. Please pray that God will touch all our hearts and the hearts of our family and friends during this Easter season.
By Grace,
Pastor Andrew
Jn. 17:3