SERMON DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What do you think happens to someone after they die?
Read Luke 16:19-31.
[Context: Jesus was speaking to Pharisees who were “lovers of money” and who justified themselves before men. But Jesus, using the familiar afterlife traditions of his day, tells them this parable to warn them about how God sees our hearts in the ways we live this life and judges us accordingly in the next.]
1. How does the parable contrast the state of the two men before their death, at their burial, and after their death?
2. Does this parable teach that Lazarus experienced heavenly bliss because of his earthly poverty and that the rich man experienced torment because of his wealth on earth? Explain.
3. The Rich Man discovers that he has lost access to Lazarus in death but has his attitude towards him changed? (vv. 20, 23, 26).
4. What is the one thing Abraham asks the rich man to do (v. 25)?
5. Why does God not send messengers from the dead to warn us (v. 31)? Who has God sent and how do we know that his testimony about the afterlife is true?
6. The Bible tells us that we are made right with God by believing the gospel. But what if the Rich Man in this story had been a regular attender at your church each week, what would you have told him was inauthentic or lacking about his declared faith in God?
7. Is there something you have learned in this parable that makes you want to cling more tightly to the mercy of God through Christ? Is there something you have learned in this parable that makes you want to live more authentically for the LORD who has with such mercy saved you?
Thank God for sending “One who rose from the dead” to show us his love.