Scripture: for teacher background: Luke 16:19-31 and Luke 12:13-21 and
Mark 10:23-31
Making contact:
There was one day a rich man who owned a huge farm. There
was a poor worker named Klaas, who lived in a shack in the bottom corner of the
farm. One day the poor man, Klaas, had a dream where an angel warned him that
the richest man on the farm would die the next night. He went rushing off to
the big house to tell the master that his life was in danger. He told him about
his dream.
The farmer called the doctor who gave him a thorough check
up. He said he was perfectly healthy. As the doctor was leaving, a messenger
ran up and said “Master, master, the poor man, Klaas has died!”
Question: Who was
the richest man on the farm and why?
Exploration:
Today’s parables are about very rich people.
- In the first parable, the rich man lived each day in the
lap of luxury. He wore expensive clothes and had plenty of food. He was happily
living in splendour!
- Then there was a poor man named Lazarus. He was brought to
sit at Lazarus’ door everyday where he hoped that if any food fell from the
rich man’s table he could get a bit to eat. Even dogs used to come and lick his
sores.
- Both these men died.
-The angels carried the poor man, Lazarus, to a wonderful
feast in heaven and he was allowed to sit next to Abraham.
-The rich man was buried and went to hell where he was in
great pain.
He looked up and far away in the distance he could see Abraham with
Lazarus at his side. So he called to him: “Father Abraham! Take pity on me and
send Lazarus to dip his finger in some water and cool my tongue, because I am
in great pain in this fire!”
Abraham reminded him about his life and how he had ignored
Lazarus when he needed help. He also told him that there was a huge pit between
them and no one could cross it to get from hell to heaven.
Then Lazarus begged Abraham to send Lazarus back to earth to
go and warn his 5 brothers about this so that they didn’t also suffer such
pain.
Abraham said that everyone, including the rich man’s brothers had the
prophets and Moses’ warnings to listen to and that even if someone were to be
raised from the dead they wouldn’t listen and turn from their sin.
We know that this did happen later to Jesus, He died and
rose again and many people still didn’t listen!
Do they listen today?
The other parable is about another rich man. He was very
successful and greedy. He looked at all he had achieved and he thought to
himself: “I have done so well for myself.
I will pull down these barns and build bigger ones and I’ll
be able to just eat, drink and be merry.”
His motto in life was “Bigger and better” and “ Take life
easy, you deserve it.”
He didn’t even ask God what He wanted him to do with his
time or money.
But God spoke to him
and said: “You fool! This very night you will have to die and who will get
everything you have stored up for yourself?”
Jesus taught this parable to show how it is with people who
pile up riches for themselves but are not rich in God’s sight.
He warned against MATERIALISM and living in our own little world, taking care of just little me! A fulfilling and wonderful life is a
shared life with Him and His people. We are rich when we do this and when we
live for God and others. It is a sad and empty life when we live for ourselves.
Jesus said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of
a needle than for a rich person to go to Heaven.
It is often the love of money
and material things that prevent us from going through the gate to walk with
God.
Application
God gives us many, many chances to come to Him and repent. I
think there is at least one chance a day.
Imagine going to the
funeral of your friend and it is a friend who didn’t want anything to do with
Jesus! At the funeral all they can do is just read poetry and talk about the
person’s life and there is no talk of God or life after death. It is very sad.
In the first parable Jesus is telling us that everyone will
live forever, either in Heaven or in hell. It’s up to us where we will be and
we need to make that choice here on earth.
We know that on the
cross next to Jesus, one thief repented and the other didn’t. The repentant
thief was promised paradise that day. We can just guess what horrible place the
other thief went to!
Jesus is our Saviour to save us from hell. If we believe in
Him and repent of our sins, we have eternal life with Him.
The rich man was
actually very poor indeed. You can have everything that the world has to offer,
but without Jesus it is nothing.
Challenge to Mission
Jesus said that when we give to the poor we are actually
banking in heaven. We are sending up building material for our future there.
There was once a rich lady who was very stingy. She wouldn’t
even give the parking attendants a tip. When she died and went to heaven, the
angel showed her a tiny little shack to live in. She asked why it was so small
and the angel said that was all she sent up ahead for them to build with.
A
very poor lady also died. She always shared what little she had with anyone
hungry. When she was shown her mansion in heaven she said “Eish! And how do I
get such a beautiful home?” The angel told her that every time she helped
someone and was kind, she was depositing in her heavenly bank account.
What banking can you do in heaven? But, remember; don’t only
do good to look after your own future. Do it just because Jesus loves you and
you can pass that love on.
There is a worksheet with the story of Lazarus. The children
must fill in the missing words to tell the story.
Memory Verse
“ Make sure that your treasure is safe in heaven. Your heart
will always be where your treasure is.” Luke 12:33,34
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