The Fountain of Youth (The rich man and Lazarus Luke 16:19-31)

The Fountain of Youth (The rich man and Lazarus Luke 16:19-31)
In the early 16th century, a man named Ponce de Leon went in search of perhaps the greatest treasure ever known to mankind. He set out to find the fountain of youth which would grant him eternal youth and eternal life. He just knew that if he located the famed fountain that all his problems would be solved and that he would never have to fear death because he would just continually return to the fountain for renewal and refreshing of his body. Today we begin to study the story of the rich man and Lazarus from Luke chapter 16, there this story there are two main characters that live two very different lifestyles. There is a rich man that has everything he could want and desire and there is a poor man named Lazarus who sets at the rich man’s gate begging for enough to just survive. As the story develops, we see that both the rich man and Lazarus die, and the tables turn dramatically on their lifestyles. They open their eyes in eternity and the rich man finds himself in Hell and Lazarus in Paradise at Father Abraham’s side. This is a powerful story used by Jesus that many scholars believe was not a parable but instead a glimpse of reality that reveals the fact that we are all going to die, and the focus of our lives should be planning for our eternal destination instead of building a temporary kingdom that will fall.
Ponce de Leon died in 1521 in an attack by a Native American tribe, He never found the treasure that he was searching desperately for and now He must stand before a righteous God and give an account for his life. No amount of money, amount of fame, and not about of prestige was going to change the fact that the rich man had a date with the grave and the same was true of Lazarus. The difference in the two is that Lazarus was in right standing with God the father while the rich man was not, this meant his eternal destination was different. The story says that the rich man begged Father Abraham to warn his brothers of Hell because there was no way that he wanted them to taste the torment that he was currently in, he just wanted a drip of water placed on his tongue to comfort him. The fountain of youth does not exist, but the Fountain of Life does, and it is Jesus Christ. We can regain right standing with God the Father by placing our faith and trust in the Son of God. Through Jesus Christ we can have eternal life and never have to taste the death of Hell and grave as the rich man in Jesus’s story did. If Jesus tarries in His return, we will all leave this earth via the grave, but we all do not have to feel the sting of death; forgiveness, mercy and eternal life awaits those who trust in Jesus as their Lord.