Don’t Go To Hell - Mark 9:42-50 Series

Mark 9:41 I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward. 42 "And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to turn away, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone around his neck. 43 If your hand causes you to turn away, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. 45 And if your foot causes you to turn away, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to turn away, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where "`their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'

Introduction: Hell and Mercy

72% of Americans say they believe there is a heaven. Only 58% believe in hell. And guess how many believe there is any chance at all that they might go to hell? 2.9. 2.9% of people think there is any danger of going to hell. In other words, pretty much nobody. In fact, they asked those people who believe in hell if they could think of anyone who might be sent there—ax murderers, child abusers, whatever. 80% of them said no—they couldn’t think of anyone at all who might be sent to hell. When it comes to the way people life and the decisions they make day to day, hell is an absolute non-factor. It has no impact. The attitude of our culture is summed up perfectly by an ad that ran during the Democratic debate on Oct.15. Ron Reagan, the son of President Reagan, did a commercial for the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The tag line at the end of the commercial was this, with a smirk on his face he said: “Ron Reagan, lifelong atheist, not afraid of burning in hell.” Hardly anyone is. The doctrine of hell has been utterly rejected by our culture.

On the other hand, 84% of Americans believe in karma—just a generalized idea that what goes around comes around. The Universe somehow sees to it that you get what you got coming to you. It’s funny, I never hear of people talk about karma as an evil doctrine like they do with hell. People think the doctrine of hell is so horrible and abhorrent, and no loving God in his right mind would ever send people there. But karma—that’s fine. That’s remarkable because karma is a much harsher doctrine than hell, because there is no mercy in the doctrine of karma. If you deserve punishment, you get it, period. You can try to do better next time, but there’s nothing you can do about the punishment you already deserve. But with the biblical doctrine of hell, mercy is involved. In fact, the whole reason Jesus spoke so much of hell was to motivate us to seek that mercy. The amazing thing about hell is this: no one has to go there! Not even the worst sinner ever has to go there. Unlike with karma, no one has to be punished for their sin.

When I was growing up, there were certain things that, if I did them, there was absolutely no escaping the punishment no matter how penitent I was. But before God, no matter how much punishment I deserve… , no matter how many thousands of capital offenses I’ve committed against God… , no matter how many years I have kept my back to God… , no matter how thoroughly I have blasphemed him… , if I repent, I will never ever be punished for any of it. I may have some temporal consequences to train me, I may have to give an account on Judgment Day… , but I will never get what I deserve for those sins—I’ll never have to spend even one second in hell. But, in order to receive that mercy, we must heed the warnings Jesus gave us about hell like the one in today’s passage at the end of Mark 9.

Review

To refresh your memory, we left off last time with Jesus teaching the disciples about the greatness of his name. His name is so great that anything done in that name by anyone —even something as small as giving a cup of water, if it’s done in that name, will be eternally rewarded. That was the positive side. But Jesus goes on in the final paragraph of the chapter to spell out the negative side. If we’re dealing with a name that is that great—so great that anything done in that name brings eternal reward, how serious is it to turn away from that name? Not surprisingly, the warning about that is as extreme as it gets. Personally, I can’t think of any language that could be any stronger than what Jesus says here. It’s so strong that few preachers even preach it, and those who do (the ones I listened to) spent half their sermon apologizing for the passage.