We've been studying the Gospel of Luke for over a year and a half, when Pastor Mark preached the inaugural sermon, out of Luke 1:1–4. This weekend, we'll be up to Part 68 in this sermon series, Luke 16:19–31. This is not an easy, palatable sermon, but it is an exceedingly important one. Providentially, it is also a timely word as a national debate swirls around the question of hell. With that in mind, we wanted to give you a brief preview of this week's sermon here before you show up at church this Sunday or watch/listen to the podcast this week.

The questions people ask about hell

In this passage, Jesus tells a story about a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus. It is a story Jesus uses to describe heaven and hell, one that uses powerful, even unsettling imagery. Heaven and hell are hugely important topics and do naturally raise a number of questions, and so Pastor Mark takes the second half of this sermon to answer some of the most common ones, including:

1. What is hell? What is it like?
2. Is it possible that people can deny God for their whole earthly lives, and have a second chance after death?
3. Why would God make people who are permanently his enemies? Why does God create certain people when he knows that their only future is to be tortured for all eternity?
4. Is hell temporary? Or are the souls of the damned destroyed?
5. Will everyone who doesn't know Jesus go to hell? What if you've never heard of Jesus at all?

. This sermon is an invitation, and it's up to us to decide how we will each respond. And Jesus has made it abundantly clear what is at stake. Read the full passage after the jump:

The Rich Man and Lazarus

19 "There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 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 us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— 28 for I have five brothers —so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’"

Note: This is a different Lazarus from the one of John 11 and 12.