Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Text: Luke 16: 19-31

Theme: The Sufficiency of Moses and the Prophets

If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead. (vs. 31)

Our text brings to the forefront the evangelistic question that seems to constantly perplex Christians and congregations that have a burning desire for others to become sons and daughters of God and members of His Kingdom: How can we get through to those who seemingly have no use for the Gospel of Jesus in their lives? This question has agonized many in the household of faith as they have reacted to their own futile attempts at effective witnessing with friends, work associates, and even close loved-ones in their families. Moreover, today we live an age in which this question has become almost a science to be studied with principles and axioms to be discovered and followed so that those who otherwise would not be interested in becoming Christians would flock to the Gospel from a really on fire ministry. The loud voice today is that if your Church can just make itself exciting and attractive, if you can just present the Gospel in the midst of some real excitement, who knows what might be able to be accomplished for the Kingdom. Miracles in this regard have always seemed to hold out a special promise. If the indifferent around us could just have seen some of the miracles of Jesus, especially his resurrection from the dead . . . well, surely then they would repent and come to faith. After all, who is recorded in the Scriptures who witnessed our Lord’s resurrection but did not come to faith.

Such is the thinking of many and something like this is behind the thinking of the rich man in the parable. He thinks that if his brothers can just personally witness the power of the Lord in raising up poor Lazarus, they will be persuaded to repent and come to faith. But Abraham knows better. If they will not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded of someone rises from the dead. Despite witnessing all the miraculous works that God worked through Moses in Egypt, the children of Israel wailed before the advancing Egyptian army with their backs to the Red Sea. They complained in the wilderness and when they had the chance, they engaged in more meaningful worship with a golden calf. Within hours of the witnessing the fireballs from heaven on Mt. Carmel, the Israelites at Ahab’s urging were out to kill Elijah and return to Baal worship. And what of the crowds who had witnessed so many of Jesus miracles even the raising of Jesus friend, Lazarus (not to be confused with the Lazarus in this parable)? They had either abandoned him or were part of that great multitude in Jerusalem that shouted to Pilate, crucify him!

What are we to make of all this? Did God waste his time with his mighty wonders and displays of power? Are his miraculous works inconsequential when it comes to the ministry of the Word in the world of unbelief? Do God’s mighty acts just convince the already convinced? Lets look at this more closely at our text. We are told that the rich man in Hell is convinced that his brothers will join him there unless they have a change of heart about the kind of people they are and how they have been living. Repentance is needed by the brothers and the rich man knows it. He also thinks that the ministry of Moses and the Prophets will not be effective in producing that repentance but that it can be accomplished if someone returns to them from the dead. (vs. 30) He is right on the first point and wrong on the second.

Unless you are convinced that you are spiritually dead in your sinfulness, . . . under God’s wrath and judgment - and are concerned and alarmed about it -- the Gospel remains just foolishness and all of God’s mighty signs and wonders are useless. Witnessing a miracle, yes even a resurrection from the dead, will not produce repentance. Indeed for those who are unrepentant, dead in their trespasses -- they do not need to witness a miracle, they need one themselves. They have a heart of stone and it needs by divine action, to be turned into a heart of flesh -- a heart that is soft where the saving Word of the Gospel can be planted. As only God-with-us could turn water into wine, only the God who works through his Law as set forth by Moses and the Prophets can perform the hidden but equally miraculous work of transforming the spiritually dead sinful heart into one that is repentantly sorrowful about sin, and ready to receive the precious gifts of the Gospel.

The point of Father Abraham, speaking to the rich man in Hell and to all of us in Christ’s Church is this . . . there is no other way. Neither miracles nor witnessing any other wowser type of events can bring this kind of change of heart. Only the ministry of the Law as given to Moses and much of the prophets can produce the repentant heart capable of receiving Christ and his saving gifts. Only a repentant heart can be brought to faith --even by God. But we also need to understand this important point. Even God strikes out when there is no repentance. Even God cannot successfully plant the seed of the saving Word into an unrepentant heart of stone. If one cannot be persuaded by Moses about the personal problem of sin as death, one can never be persuaded of the value or importance of a faith-life in the Gospel of Christ. If Moses and the Prophets cannot work repentance from an application of full-strength Law, neither will the admonitions of loved ones . . . even if they have returned from the dead.

Well what are we to make of all this for our ministry here at Shepherd? And what are the implications of this story, the ministry of Moses and the Prophets, and God’s mighty signs and wonders for those unbelievers that we have a burden for, lest they too end up in Hell with the rich man in the story?

First of all we must realize that there are no promotions, no special outpourings of the Spirit, no mighty displays of God’s presence and power, no resurrections from the dead that can capture an unrepentant sinner for the Gospel of Christ. Without the death to sin, there is no life with God in Christ Jesus. This parable is challenging us to understand and appreciate some basic truths about the mission that the Lord has given to us and through which He works. He has give to us Moses and the Prophets, rightly divided between the Law, the Word that kills; and the Gospel, the Word that gives life. He has no other means, methods, or techniques for us in the ministry we have from Him. The only miracles He would work for the building up and extension of His Church are the miracles of repentance and faith. These are divinely worked spiritual realities that only He by the power of His Word and the Spirit can accomplish. You are all examples as well as witnesses of the working of these miraculous things, are you not?

But secondly, we must understand not only the limitations of God’s signs and wonders, but also their positive value. For those who are repentant who want to know, is there really forgiveness through Jesus? Is He really God-with-Us who has the power to forgive us our sins -- watch Jesus with the paralytic and his bed: So that you may know that the Son of Man has the power to forgive sins, I say to you, rise, take up your bed and walk. (Matt. 9) And as we through the corroborated eye-witness testimony have witnessed the resurrected Christ -- nail, sword prints, and all. We know that our redeemer lives and that we too shall one day be raised up. Resurrections do not persuade repentance, but they certainly give assurance that our trust in our Lord is not in vain. Through His death and resurrection, Moses and the Prophets are fulfilled and we are brought to the comfort of life everlasting.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. A-men.