In Luke 16 Jesus tells a story that few enjoy preaching, yet it carries a dual purpose for both the local congregation and those preparing for missionary service. The account of the rich man and Lazarus confronts us with a sobering reality: in the place Jesus calls hell there are people who care about the lost more than many of us do. Their burden for evangelism was born too late. The tragedy is not only that the rich man wanted his family reached; the tragedy is that he cared after his opportunity had ended. Abraham’s reply in verse 29 supplies the title and the charge of this message: “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.”
God has given sufficient witness in His Word for the salvation of all who will believe, and He continues to call enough labourers to reach this generation. As Isabel Kuhn observed, in each generation God has called enough men and women to evangelize all the yet unreached tribes of the earth. It is not God who does not call; it is man who does not respond. The question that presses upon us is whether the people we meet truly have the gospel from us, and whether we will let them hear it while there is still time.
Because Hell Is Real (vs. 22-26)
The narrative moves quickly from life to eternity. “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom” (Luke 16:22-23).
Hell is not a fictional realm invented for effect. Jesus never created imaginary worlds. He spoke of realities. In this place the rich man experiences torment, memory, thirst, and irreversible separation. Abraham answers his plea for relief with these words: “between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence” (Luke 16:26). Witnessing is impossible there. Reaching loved ones is impossible there. Doing good is impossible there.
Jesus describes no cycle of rebirth, no second chance, no temporary cleansing, and no mere extinction of existence. He speaks of a fixed gulf. The world invents alternatives such as annihilationism or reincarnation, yet none of those escape routes appear in Scripture.
The same eyes that lift up in torment should move us to lift up our eyes while opportunity remains. Jesus said, “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest” (John 4:35). Someone somewhere will lift up their eyes. Either those who possess the gospel will lift their eyes to the harvest, or others will lift their eyes in a Christless eternity.
C. T. Studd, once a celebrated athlete, left fame behind to take the gospel to China, India, and Africa. He declared, “Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell, but I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell.” William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, urged those who claimed they had never heard the call to place their ear to the Bible, to the agonized heart of humanity, and finally to the gates of hell itself, where the lost plead that someone warn their families. Hell produces urgency, yet it supplies no further opportunity. We still have opportunity. The question is whether we possess matching urgency.
Because Someone Is Still Waiting (vs. 27-28)
The rich man could not return, yet he remembered those still alive. “I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment” (Luke 16:27-28). Five brothers still breathing, still reachable, still able to hear.
Hell remembers the lost. The cry from that place is “Go warn them.” Heaven’s consistent answer is “Let them hear.” The two loudest voices for evangelism remain the Lord’s command to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and the lost in torment who plead that someone reach those who have not yet arrived.
Opportunities open when believers keep eyes and ears attentive. One couple serving in a difficult region repeatedly encountered the devastation of human trafficking. What began as conventional missionary work became a determined effort to rescue the vulnerable and then to place the gospel in their hands. God often uses practical compassion as a doorway.
Don and Carol Richardson experienced the same principle among the Sawi people of Papua New Guinea. The tribe admired betrayal so deeply that Judas became their hero. Only when the missionaries observed the cultural practice of the “peace child,” a living infant given to end warfare, did they find the key. They proclaimed Jesus as the ultimate Peace Child sent from heaven. As long as that Child lives, peace with God remains possible. Many believed.
Hell remembers those still waiting. We must reach them while they can still hear.
Because God’s Word Can Save (vs. 29-31; Romans 10:17)
Abraham refused the request for a dramatic messenger from the dead. “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. … If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:29, 31). Scripture, not spectacle, is God’s chosen means.
Romans 10:17 states the same truth: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The companion question in Romans 10:14 remains urgent: “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”
Does every person in our communities possess the Word of God? Have they all heard the gospel? The answer is a clear no. Faithway’s commitment to worldwide evangelization deliberately directs the greater part of its mission support toward those who plant churches, preach the gospel, and make disciples, precisely because God’s Word can save.
John G. Patton demonstrated this confidence on the island of Aniwa in the New Hebrides. Facing a people who mocked the idea of finding water by digging in the ground, he kept digging until water appeared. The astonished chief reasoned that if Jehovah could send rain from the earth, He could also send His Son from heaven. Idols were burned, the New Testament was eventually printed in their language, and the gospel advanced across the islands. Practical need met became the open door for the Word that saves.
A man once telephoned from western Canada in desperation. His friend of thirty years was scheduled for assisted death the following morning. In three decades the caller had never shared the gospel. A pastor raced to the hospital only to be turned away by family. Tracts were left, yet the outcome remains unknown. The friend who had waited too long wept over the telephone. Charles Spurgeon’s words still cut to the heart: if sinners are damned, let them leap to hell over our dead bodies; let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.
The gospel is only good news if it arrives in time. Silence is not an option when faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
The rich man’s cry came too late. The Great Commission has not. Lazarus could not cross the gulf. The rich man could not return to preach, to hand out a single tract, to support a missionary, or to surrender himself. We can still speak. We can still care. We can still pray. We can still give. We can still go.
Hudson Taylor prayed that God would make hell so real that we cannot rest, heaven so real that we must have men there, and Christ so real that our supreme aim becomes the conversion of many. While opportunity remains, let them hear.
