19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,

21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

22 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;

23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

26 And beside all this, 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.

27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house:

28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

Luke 16.19-31

In the parable which Jesus told there in Luke 16, we read about a man who is in Hell and he asks Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to go warn his five brothers and his dad, so that they don't end up in the same place of torment as him.

It's as if he's saying, "Tell my family they don't have to make the stupid choices to end up here!!"

Jesus Christ is telling this story.  Why is that?  It's because Jesus Christ does not want people to end up in Hell.  The Bible tells us that by dying, Jesus went to that spiritual prison where disobedient spirits were kept, and He preached to them.  Jesus went and saved people.  His work is finished, and soon He is returning for all those who would want to go with Him.

There are people on this Earth right now who will spend eternity in Hell if they are not somehow reached with the Good News of the Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ.  It is a very simple Message, so simple that little children can understand it.  Yet, so many people have distorted and misinterpreted it over and over, so that now people don't have any clue what it means to really be Christian.

The word Christian began as a sneer word, like a derogatory word used for the people group who called themselves followers of "The Way," as Jesus Christ is called.  They were said to be like "little Christs," and this is the sneer that stuck: Christian, which means "little Christ," or, "like Christ."  People who were Believers in Jesus Christ knew that they were believing in the One true God, and of course they were thrilled to be named by His name!  This also fulfills Scriptures, when in the Old Testament and in the New Testament God tells us that He is going to put His name upon us.  He made the name of Jesus Christ above all other names, and it is the name which rests upon us!  All of creation views Christians as royalty, because we are royalty, covered in and covered by the blood which purchased us from the clutches of death.

Jesus Christ gave His life as the Lamb which was slain from the foundation of the Earth, so that we would have liberty.  He became sin so that we would become His righteousness.  This our Creator has loved us with such a total and extravagant love, that we cannot escape it, even if we should try. God pursues us, and His Word tells us that He wins us by His kindness.

When God is warning us about Hell, He is also informing us of what is Hell, and how to escape Hell.  Hell is the eternal separation from the love of God, wrought by our own choices and sinfulness.  Each one of us is destined for Hell from our earliest ages, because we are all born into sin, and none of us is good enough to stand in God's presence without being consumed by His holiness and destroyed by His pureness.  It is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ which pleads on our behalf like the most excellent attorney in the most crucial legal battle ever to have been waged.  It is this sacrifice and this sacrifice only which has satisfied the wrath of God Almighty, and because Jesus Christ lived a perfect life as an example for all of us to follow, and because Jesus Christ walked this Earth in the dirt that other humans walked, and because Jesus Christ was a human, born to a virgin, and subject to the same human things as we are, we can rest assured that this Jesus Christ is our Best Friend, our Redeemer, our Companion, our Defender, our Righteousness, and our Strength and Shield.

Jesus Christ is my ALL IN ALL.  Jesus Christ is Jehovah Tsidkenu Jireh.

The Old Testament is a recording of early civilization, and prophecy of a future Messiah.  In it, man gets some things right, but mostly keeps falling back into self-destructive habits and patterns, and God gave them the law, which helped raise up society to a point where it was thriving, and ready for true Life, and this also means that it was in need of Life, because society was dead and dark during those days, even though some would have looked around and marveled at how great of accomplishments were taking place all around them every day, and said things like, "We truly are at the height of society, far more advanced than any civilization has ever been before us."

Back before Jesus Christ walked this Earth, very few people ever recognized the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit.  They didn't have the Bible put together back then, it was still being written, and if anybody had some Scriptures, they didn't realize that one day it would be canonized into sixty six books that would rule the world and all of eternity for all to ever come and light the way unto salvation for all those who would have the benefit of the printing press and the discipline of foregone generations who have gone before and painstakingly copied the older manuscripts into the English and other translations of the Bible which are so readily available in so many places around the world today.

Back then, the law was like a school marm.  It would crack the whip and keep things in line, and it did good to keep a civilization healthy as it roamed through desert places and lived in tents for long periods.  

Then, Jesus Christ arrived and delivered to human civilization grace and truth.  This kind of love of God is quintessentially God's heart's intention towards us as human beings: that we would receive His grace and truth and benefit from it in all that we do, so that we would understand His deep love for us and His deep desire to have communion, a deep relationship with us.  One of the core messages of Jesus Christ, and indeed His name Emmanuel means "God is with us."

The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

Repent.