4 Things Everyone Should Know About Hell Series

Luke Series #73 July 21, 2002

Title: 4 Things Everyone Should Know About Hell

Email: pastorsarver@yahoo.com

Website: www.newlifeinchrist.info

Introduction: Set off a smoke alarm using test button.

The sound you just heard is very unpleasant. It is loud, it is annoying, and you probably would rather not hear it. Nevertheless, this noise can save your life because it comes from a smoke alarm, which is intended to make a clear warning of impending danger so that you will take actions to save your life.

Today I will be speaking to you about Hell. It too is unpleasant and disturbing to hear. It is like the smoke alarm in that we had rather not hear about it, but the teachings Jesus gave us about Hell are intended to warn us of impending danger so that we will take actions and save our eternal lives. I hope each of you will listen carefully as I share from the Bible 4 Things Everyone Should Know About Hell.

Opening Prayer.

As most of you are aware, it is our practice here in New Life in Christ to teach through books of the Bible passage by passage. We’re currently in the Book of Luke on Sunday mornings. Last week I taught on Luke 16:1-15 which concerned the wise use of money. Today I will be teaching on Luke 16:19-31 which means that I am skipping verses 16-18. I’ll cover those verses next week which is something I do not usually do but I have a good reason for doing this today. Next week, immediately after the Sunday service, Lisa Kelly and Mark Stanley will be getting married in front of the congregation at the end of the service. If I had preached the text in order, I would have been preaching on a rich man ending up in Hell on their wedding day. Some people may humorously think that this would be fitting, but I thought be wiser to teach on Hell this week and on the previous passage, which speaks on the subject of marriage, next week.

With that note of explanation, let us read our text for this week.

Read Luke 16:19-31

In this text I see four things everyone to know about Hell. The first thing everyone should know about Hell is that. . .

1. Hell may be in your future even if you are presently prospering.

At this point in the narrative Jesus is not speaking primarily to his true disciples, rather he is speaking primarily to those who were outwardly religious but had not truly repented of their sins or trusted in and committed to Jesus Christ. Nevertheless this story is recorded in the Bible for genuine Christians to learn from, even though they are not in danger of Hell. Now there is a debate among Bible scholars as to whether this story is a parable, which is an illustrative fictional story, or if this story is a non fictional event. They’re good arguments on both sides of the debate but it is one that I do not want to take sides on because both parables and historical events recorded in the Bible are intended to do the same thing, which is teach us spiritual truths. The first spiritual truth we learn is that. . .

1. Hell may be in your future even if you are presently prospering.

Read Luke 16:9

In these verses, Jesus especially notes that the man who ended up in Hell was living the good life. He was wealthy, living in luxury, and eating the best foods, and according to Jesus this went on "every day." There was nothing in his life on earth that indicated the terrible future that he faced. In that culture, the rich man would have been considered blessed, spiritual, and destined for heaven. The people of that time reasoned that if a person was doing all right in this life, there was no reason to worry about the future life. After all, if God was angry with them he would not prosper them. People tend to think that way today. People think that if judgment has not come already, it will not come in the future. Let me give you an example of that type of thinking.

President Clinton named Kristine Gebbie, a lesbian, as the new AIDS czar. Four months later she spelled out her perceptions on traditional morality. She said, [The United States] needs to view human sexuality as an essentially important and pleasurable thing. [Until it does so], we will continue to be a repressed, Victorian society that misrepresents information, denies homosexual sexuality, particularly in teens, and leaves people abandoned with no place to go. I can help just a little bit in my job, standing on the White House lawn talking about sex with no lightning bolts falling on my head."