“And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them lest they also come into this place of torment.'”
– Luke 16:27–28
Wow, what a picture of someone in hell as Jesus tells this story, saying to Abraham in heaven, “Send somebody to my father’s house, to my family. I have five brothers. And warn them, lest they come into this place of torment.”
Luke 16:27–28 Gives us a glimpse of a Soul in the Place of Torment
Jesus gives us a glimpse into the cry of the dead in hell, “Send somebody to the people I love. Tell them to trust in God. Tell them to turn away from sin and the things of this world.” And specifically, here in the context of Luke 16, the riches of this world. Somebody go warn them so that they don’t come here.
As these impromptu, unexpected prayer gatherings have continued each night in our church family in a way, nobody including me has planned, I’ve just been so struck, as we’ve seen God’s spirit prompting us to pray and confess and worship, and the need for the power of God’s spirit in our lives. To be witnesses in a world that desperately needs warning, to people around us who desperately need warning. Just picture people in hell pleading, longing for somebody to go to their family members and tell them the good news of God’s love in Jesus. Warn them so they don’t have to go there. Even as we pray for the nations in this podcast, the picture here in Luke 16 is the dead in hell saying, “Somebody go to them.”
Think about people like the Chamalal people of Russia, unreached people group in the mountains of Dagestan and Chechnya. Have never heard the gospel. And there are Chamalal people in hell right now, who would wish that somebody would go and warn their family members, their brothers and their sisters, and their moms and their dads and their kids, so that they don’t come there.
Luke 16:27–28 Encourages us to Help Reach the Unreached
Can we just hear this cry from hell, and couple it all the more so with the call from our God in Heaven to go? And can we say, “God, yes. Yes, our lives today, use us to go and warn people. Use us today to tell somebody about the seriousness of sin, and the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus for our sin, and the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. An eternal life that is possible through faith in Jesus.” Help us, God, to be faithful, to share this good news with somebody today.
O God, I think about stories we’ve seen even this week of people coming to faith in Jesus. God, we pray that You would show the power of the gospel in Your church, in and through our lives, and You would do it today. God, fill us with the power of Your Holy Spirit. Fill us with Your love in such a way that we would proclaim Your good news, that we would warn people of coming judgment, so that they would not go to that place of torment.
Praying for the Chamalal People
God, we pray that for the Chamalal people of Russia, we pray that you would send out laborers to the Chamalal and thousands of other unreached people, groups like them. Send laborers with the good news of the gospel. And we say to you with our lives, make us those laborers in whatever way you desire, even as we praise you, Jesus, that we don’t have to worry about going to this place of torment. We pray this according to your word in Luke 16:27–28. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
