There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.This parable climaxes with the rich man asking Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead so Lazarus could tell the rich man's brothers what happened to him. Then they would believe and wouldn't make the same mistake. Abraham's response was very profound.
At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores.
And longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried.
In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
So he called to him, "Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire."
But Abraham replied, "Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.
"And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us."
He answered, "Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, "For I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment."
Abraham replied, "They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them."
"No, father Abraham," he said, "but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent."
He said to him, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."
(Luke 16:19-31)
Sadly, many think that if the miracle is big enough or if the sign is amazing enough, everyone will believe. But that's just not true. They knew the miracles God performed for Moses and the Prophets, but they didn't care about seeing the truth. Sending someone back from the dead was not going to convince them to believe in their hearts.
Again, Jesus doesn't logically convince people's minds - He goes after their hearts. Why? Because logically you can convince people that there is no God just as easily as you can convince them that there is a God.
For example, many times I have heard of someone who experienced a miracle healing and people excused it away by saying, "Oh yeah, well, they probably weren't really sick."
Doctors will say, "Well, they probably didn't have cancer after all. We must have misdiagnosed it."
Still others will say, "They probably recovered quickly because of all the vitamins they take."
People who are not inclined to truth will not be logically convinced anyway. They'll find ways to dismiss a miracle by thinking they were hallucinating or they weren't in their right mind.
This is another example that God doesn't use logical things to convince people. He wants to open people's eyes and convict their hearts, so when they commit their life and say they believe, they're doing it because they know Jesus is real.
Are you waiting for yet another miracle to prove something to you? Or are you able to believe God is real simply by what His Word says?
Excerpt permission granted by Teen Mania Ministries