Why does Les go through the Luke 16 rich man and Lazarus account when teaching on paradise?
The Luke 16 rich man and Lazarus account provides a further biblical window into the afterlife. Going through it helps clarify what Paul later teaches about paradise, compared with its meaning in the Old Testament and during Christ's earthly ministry. It shows Lazarus carried to Abraham's bosom and the rich man in hell.
Les explains that he is not showing anything new by going over Luke 16, but he goes through it again because it serves as a further description and a little window into the afterlife. All of this, he says, helps us understand what Paul now teaches with regard to paradise, compared to what it was in the Old Testament and during Christ's earthly ministry. In the account, the beggar Lazarus dies and is carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom, while the rich man dies, is buried, and is in hell. Les notes that in the Old Testament the Hebrew word was Sheol, in the Greek it was Hades, and in English it is hell, all meaning the same thing: the abode of those who had departed this life.
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: